Souma and Erina
by Envoy of the White Moon
Summary: Ten years ago, two children meet long before they were meant to. This small change in time binds these two together on a journey that will rock their world for years to come. They shall meet again, changing not only their lives but the lives of those around them. *Update after so long will come next week. I'm so sorry for the wait*
1. Chapter 1 Childhood Friends

第―章

幼なじみ

Chapter 1

Childhood Friends

* * *

A six year old Nakiri Erina raised a haughty eyebrow at the equally six year old boy who was looking at her intently. She had tasted his Teriyaki Salmon dish, Egg Soup with squid dashi base, white rice and freshly prepared pickled vegetables and had found it… adequate.

Actually, she found it better than adequate. She had been skeptical the moment she met the son of Asura, Yukihira Jōchirō, since he was just as young as her. The level of skill she believed he had was nonexistent. The moment she had said that, the young blonde had seen a mischievous gleam in the redheaded boy's eyes that had her cautious from that moment on.

Her fears were unfounded the moment she had taken a bite of his food and was nearly sent to food Nirvana. Of course she could never tell the young boy in front of her, she was too proud to do so. Okay, maybe not too proud. He did pretty well for his age.

"How long have you been cooking Sōma-kun?" she asked, very light blush on her face.

"I've held a knife since I was three. So, three years it's been?" The redheaded boy grinned broadly at the girl across from him. "What'd ya think?"

"I-Its was a-adequate," she stammered out, a full blush adorning her cheeks.

"Just adequate?" Sōma asked cheekily, rubbing his chin and leaning in closer to the girl.

"Ye-Yes!" the girl squeaked out, leaning away from the infuriating boy. He was getting on her nerves, but she could not find in herself the will to push him away.

"Well then," Sōma crossed his arms across his chest and smirked broadly, "Looks like someone's a little dishonest."

"I am not dishonest!" Erina shot back at the boy, indignant at his disrespectful tone. "You're food was just adequate, and barely so!" She frowned when he smiled even more widely, a very mischievous gleam in his eyes. The blonde had now realized she had gone just a little too far.

"Is that a challenge? 'Cuz if it's so, I'll make you eat your words." She wanted to smack that cheeky grin off his face so badly now.

"You're a hundred years too early to challenge me Sōma-kun," the little girl huffed, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

* * *

So the following days after that declaration, Yukihira Sōma had made every single one of Erina's with one serving for himself as well. And despite the fact she would always say his food was adequate, the young redhead was never once dejected due to her words. In fact, her words seemed to kindle within the son of Asura a fire that his own father had never seen before. Somehow or another, the strange relationship they shared was helping both children grow and learn from the other in ways other than just cooking.

Jōchirō had actually found them one day playing Uno in an empty room off to the side of the Nakiri family compound.

"Hey Pops," Sōma greeted his father with a wave of his hand, not taking his eyes off the cards in his other hand. "Cancel. Plus four, color is now red." Jōchirō laughed heartily when he saw Erina pout cutely and mutter something about cheaters as she gathered another four cards to her seven.

"Reversal. Reversal. Cancel. Plus two, color's blue!" the young blonde said proudly as she placed the three cards on the pile and snickered.

"I'm going to get you for that," Sōma promised, annoyed that he had to take on more cards since he was down to two just a few moments ago.

About seven minutes and thirty-two expended cards later, Erina had come out on top as the winner of their fifteenth match of Uno, though the record was eight to seven with Sōma in the lead by one. The redhead sighed as he gathered the cards and listened to his friend boast about her awesome card skills as well as cooking skills.

"Didn't you burn those cookies a few days ago?" the young boy asked with a dubious raise of the brow.

"You were distracting me! I had it completely under control! Besides you could have pulled them just as well." He was perplexed by her stern reply and blushing face, two very contrasting shows of emotion.

"All I said was you had a little batter on the side of your face." That only served to cause her to blush harder. "And I was checking to see if you were okay, since you ran out of the kitchen pretty fast, face all red."

"Th-that was nothing!" she told him indignantly, crossing her arms across his chest.

"As much as I love watching you guys go at it," Sōma's father voice cut through their little argument, interrupting them. "Sōma and I need to leave."

"What?" the two of them, Erina and Sōma said at once.

* * *

The entirety of the Nakiri staff, as well as family members including the clan head, Nakiri Senzaemon, were gathered at the gates of the clan compound to see off Yukihira Jōchirō and Sōma as they departed to other parts of the world for a ten year long tour.

"Make sure you write to me, okay?" Erina sniffed as she hugged the boy to herself.

"Okay," the boy replied awkwardly, patting her back to reassure the little girl hugging him that he was going to write to her.

"Promise?" she asked as she pulled back to look him in the eyes.

"It's a promise!" Sōma replied with a grin. "And I'll make sure that when I come back, my cooking is so great, you'll be forced to praise it!"

Erina smiled and then motioned for one of the maids to come forward. The little girl then thanked her maid when she procured the object from the woman and proceeded to present it to Sōma with both hands. "Please take this as a good luck charm." It was a simple long white piece of cloth. "I asked my mother to help me make it for you. It was supposed to be a birthday present." The last bit was muttered quietly, but not enough so for Sōma not to hear.

Taking the offered material with both hands, Sōma marveled at it for a moment before tying it around his forearm as if it were an armband. He then looked at his friend and grinned broadly. "I'll think of you whenever I wear this."

"I hope in a good way," she muttered. The young blonde was then engulfed in one more hug that ended just as quickly as it was initiated. Erina then watched as the boy ran off to catch up to his eccentric father who was already strolling along.

"Don't worry Erina-chan," her grandfather's voice interrupted her thoughts on Sōma. "Sōma-kun will more than likely be back. I have a feeling that you'll meet him at Tōtsuki when you enter there too."

Erina nodded absentmindedly to her grandfather and watched as the two small figures in the distance shrunk until they were no longer there. 'You better come back with skills enough to satisfy me Sōma-kun, or else I'll never forgive you."

* * *

Is it me, or does the writing of Shokugeki no Souma sound like an ecchi manga or eroge? Eh, must be since the artist was formerly a hentai mangaka... Don't look it up. You're not old enough. Also, this is a new story, and if you're here from other my other works, don't kill me!

Disclaimer: Yeah I don't own this.

So I'm not doing another, got it?


	2. Chapter 2 Family of Idiots

第二章

馬鹿の家族

Chapter 2

Family of Idiots

* * *

Okay, so despite being a renowned chef that was of legendary renown, Yukihira Jōchirō was capable of being an absent minded dunce at times. Erina finally understood that when she met the father and son duo two years later at their family shop.

The problem with them going on a ten year tour to learn cooking techniques was rather redundant, as Jōchirō had not taken into account numerous factors. There were numerous ones, but one of the prominent problems were that Sōma needed an education, and finding a school that would accept a child transferring every few months between schools would be difficult for a foreign student. That could be solved if Sōma learned seven other languages… yeah that was not going to happen any time soon.

There was also the problem of time for Jōchirō as he had to split it between homeschooling Sōma, as well as training his son along with working in high class restaurants. That had been one year right there that Jōchirō had gone through, and he felt like tearing his hair out due to stress, so that was a no go.

The final prominent problem was that Jōchirō and Sōma had finished the main points of the tour, so there was no real need to fruitlessly continue on due to the fact Sōma was still a child and thus not allowed to gain real dining experience. Thus the reason why Jōchirō had returned to reopen the Restaurant Yukihira.

"I kind of feel cheated in a way," Erina muttered, swinging her legs on the stool at the counter. "I thought I wasn't going to see you guys, well Sōma-kun at least, until another eight years."

"That's more my fault ojou-chan," the Asura chuckled as he set down the Transforming Furikake Gohan before the little eight year old girl. "I was just a little too arrogant in thinking that I could teach him school stuff as well as cooking while traveling the world."

"I thought you were doing great pops!" Sōma told his father in disagreement as he too placed his Transforming Furikake Gohan before his friend. "Besides, I got to see so much of the world! Not many other kids can say they've been to Singapore, China, Russia, Germany, Italy," Sōma paused there, trying to remember the other countries he had been to with his father. "France, Mexico and America all in two years!"

"Did you learn anything though?" Erina asked with a raised brow, pulling the Asura's dish a little closer to smell. A happy smile emerged on her face, but was quickly gone with the dumb look Sōma was giving her. "Really?" she deadpanned.

"Well…" the redhead hesitated, scratching his cheek with a finger.

"If you can't even remember it, then either you must be an idiot, or just a forgetful person," the blonde muttered as she ate some of the father's food. "So good," she sighed happily, allowing the taste of the food to linger in her mouth.

"I think you'd have to taste his food if want to see if he's grown," Jōchirō admitted as he nudged his son's bowl of food forward.

"Oh fine," the girl pouted as she pushed the father's food away for the son's. She saw the look of anticipation on her friend and silently wondered if he had really learned anything at all in those two years. When she took the first bite of his food, she realized that he really had grown.

While both of their dishes were exquisite smelling and delicious tasting, the father's food had more of a refined and experienced taste as opposed to the fresh and eager taste that Sōma's exhibited. However, there was something in her friend's dish that was more potent compared to Jōchirō's. It was in both of their dishes, but the taste in the father's was more akin to nostalgia with a hint of sadness, while Sōma's was like a blanket wrapping warmly around her, warming her to the very core and soothing her worries.

That was the factor that decided the two-hundredth and fifty ninth match in the son's favor for the first time ever.

"I'd blame the reason my son won on the judge's bias," the older redhead smirked at the indignant look both kids shot him, but ruffled both of their heads instead. "But I feel that I'd lose out to Sōma every time if you were the judge from now on."

"Why's that pop? I've lost to you plenty of times when she was the judge when we were younger." Erina nodded her head as well, agreeing that this was the first time that she had ever liked the son's food over the father's.

"You had this really intense look on your face when we were cooking the food Sōma," his father admitted with a grin. "You never had it before when you cooked before."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Erina asked curiously, wondering what intense looks had to do with cooking.

"I wonder," Jōchirō wondered with a bemused smile on his face. "Now, I believe right now's the time that little Miss Ojou is to be picked up." He stopped his son with a hand. "I'll clean up; you guys have a lot to catch up on, ne?"

The two eight year old kids found a table out of the way that they could quietly talk to one another about their two year separation.

"Oh wow," Erina giggled to herself, completely amused about the little tale of this Takumi character. "Does he have bad luck or something, because I would have laughed too," the blonde snickered.

"He just can't keep a serious attitude on," he agreed with a grin. "It's because he's too easily freaked out is all." A mischievous appeared on his face. "I once freaked him out with fake spider."

"Do that to me and I'll smack you silly," she told him seriously, though the grin on her face kind of defeated the serious tone in her voice. However, the grin turned to a frown in a moment when she remembered what Sōma's father was talking about too long ago. "Sōma-kun?"

"Hmmm?"

"Your dad said you were really intent while cooking the furikake. What did he mean about that?"

"Well, I kind of think I know what he was talking about." He scratched his cheek while a blush adorned his face. "I was kind of thinking about how much I wanted to impress you instead of usually wanting to beat pop." He smiled as he remembered what he was thinking at the time. "It'd been so long since we last saw each other that I wanted to impress you with what I'd learned then make you admit that what I cooked was delicious."

"You really are an idiot," Erina admitted as she covered her face, mostly so to hide the happy blush on her face due to the strange feeling in her heart that Sōma stirred up. "It's like you're a shōnen hero who learns something but forgets how to utilize that ability until the plot calls for it or doesn't even realize he's using said ability."

"I'm not that bad," the redheaded boy whined. "Oh hey, you want to try out my new dish?" he asked as he opened up a small plastic container. His blonde friend looked on with trepidation as he raised a piece of squid tentacle covered in some runny sauce.

"Uh, n-no thanks." Her refusal was rejected when suddenly she had a piece of tentacle covered in what she identified as honey shoved into her mouth.

"Sōma-kun! You idiot!" she shouted as God's Palate gave her the imagination of being bound by a giant squid covered it honey. "Why?!"

"It's really bad isn't it?" the oblivious and dense boy chuckled as he too tasted his failed dish.

* * *

This is the new chapter 2. Please read it and review. It's for all those who wanted a better character development, and I actually agree. So we'll be getting some more pre-Tōtsuki chapters to build everyone's development. Of course, it'll be developed independent of the manga due to the childhood friend relationship between Erina and Sōma, so everyone will be a little differnt from the manga. Just a heads up.


	3. Chapter 3 Conviction

第三章

不退転

Chapter 3

Conviction

* * *

The final day of the school year had just ended for everyone in Japan. That meant for the twelve year old Nakiri Erina, she only had a few months left of freedom until before she would join other prestigious students in the Middle School section of Tōtsuki. She would more than likely be placed on a pedestal during those three years, in which case she could kiss any chance of real friendship goodbye.

Her keen intellect had already clued her into the scheming that numerous chefs around the world had begun. Using her name to elevate themselves, pretentious little pieces of trash is what they were to her to not even care that they were abusing a little girl's powers.

Somehow or another, she had never really become a cold, closed off person or an arrogant, aloof individual like she thought she would. To be honest, the little girl could honestly say that it was only due to her peculiar friendship with the son of Asura that kept her mildly grounded. He somehow could rustle her feathers and make her want to spit fire at the redhead, but at other times he made her feel normal and accepted as a person rather than an ability she never really asked for.

"Keep sighing like that and you'll drive away the joy in life." She looked over her shoulder to see that Sōma was there with two cans of juice in hand. The young boy hen plopped himself down beside her on the grass in the field and offered her one which she took with both hands.

"I'm just remembering the fact that I'll be working nearly three times as much compared to before," she told him as she stared at the stars above. Taking a sip of the strawberry juice, the little girl sighed happily at the comforting taste of the country raised fruit raised with love and care.

"Since you'll be entering the Middle School section of that one place," Sōma pointed out as he too sipped his melon juice.

"Tōtsuki, yeah."

"I wish I could join you there, seems kind of boring to just wait around and learn normal school stuff if I'll be heading there in a few years."

"You'll be gaining invaluable experience training under your father in those three years though Sōma-kun. Since he was a student, he'd be able to teach you the necessary points rather than all the side subjects that could be learned later." She flipped her hair as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "Besides, I'm sure you'd hate it there. I know I do, and I'm not even a student yet."

"Why's that?" the redhead asked curiously.

"It's hard making friends when everyone just sees you as your ability first rather than as a person first." The look she gave held a distant sadness. "But I know I'll have my friend back when he passes the Transfer test," the Nakiri told him with a small, yet sad smile.

"Everything rides on me passing my transfer exam huh?" the redhead muttered as he stretched out so that he could lay on the grass. "That'll just make me more nervous you know?"

"That's three years from now you idiot," she stated matter-of-factly. "Besides, who you are right now and who you will be later on will be two different people." The blonde girl grinned at her friend. "I think you'll be really cool when we meet again Sōma-kun." Sōma sat up however when he saw tears coming from the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, none of that. We still have the whole summer to ourselves," he told her as held her at arm's length, unsure of what to do in the current situation. The redhead was completely startled however when he was engulfed in an unexpected hug, eyes widening as he heard her saying she did not want to lose the only really close friend she had anywhere.

He would have said that she had friends, but he realized that this odd sense of openness he too shared with her that he did not share with others. A part of him realized that it would seem rather boring around without her, despite the fact he had other kids his age to hang out with. Maybe it was because he had a different dream compared to them that made it harder to really connect with them.

No use in worrying about his own problems though, he had more pressing matters.

"It won't be much, but we can still write each other," he offered confidently enough, hoping to get his friend to stop crying.

"Yeah," she sniffed as she pulled away a little. "We can write each other," the blonde admitted with a sulky look. "Still won't be the same as being with a friend in person." Her last part was muttered, but not softly enough for Sōma not to hear.

"I still wear it you know."

"What?"

"The piece of cloth you gave me four years ago, I still wear it to this day." He pulled up the right sleeve of his black Restaurant Yukihira shirt to reveal a piece of cloth wrapped numerous times around his forearm. "Whenever I look at it, I remember our promise to back when we kids."

"You're still on that?" she asked with a shocked look on her face, silently wondering if that was reason behind his ambition to become a better chef.

"It's helped me quite a bit to tell the truth," he told her with a shrug. "Whenever I wear it like a headband, I just feel so much determined to cook the best dish I can."

"Like two years ago?"

"That's actually the first and only time I've ever won against my pop while wearing your cloth," Sōma admitted with a nervous laugh.

"I wonder why that is," she wondered aloud, dense like the redhead boy when it came to matters of the heart and relationships.

But really, no one could blame them; the two of them are ten. They were lucky enough not to think that the other was nasty because of cooties. That's at least something. Most kids their age would not even have this level of friendship, even if theirs was odd by definition.

* * *

When young, the time spent in the company of friends doing nothing but hanging out, goofing off and enjoying freedom seems to pass by like words on a page. Each moment could feel just as quick as the last, yet felt as if it could last forever. Sometimes the wish those moments in time could continue on till the sun and stars grow cold is very real, yet the realization that growing up and apart becomes more and more prevalent, eventually tearing friendships apart due to worldly and adult obligations.

And so the two months that made up their summer passed by like the cherry blossoms that bloom and die within a week. Though they spent time enjoying the summer like nothing was wrong, they could never get rid of the feeling that life was tearing the two friends apart, though that was felt more on Erina's part than on her redheaded friend's part.

Sōma waved his friend goodbye as he watched the family car she rode in drive away until it could no longer be seen again. Though a part of him felt strangely hollow due to the parting, a greater more hopeful part of him realized the two of them spent two years apart two years ago. Another three years would not tear their friendship apart.

In the car, Erina gripped the good luck charm tightly to her chest, silently praying that she could make it through the next three relatively unscathed. She prayed that at the very least there were small mercies that allowed her to have some free time to head down to Sōma's hometown to dine with the father-son duo or at the very least visit them.

* * *

The following day as Sōma faced off against his father, he looked down at the cloth he was given by Erina as he wondered how she was doing. Untying the cloth and holding it in both hands, he remembered those words he promised her before receiving the cloth.

" _And I'll make sure that when I come back, my cooking is so great, you'll be forced to praise it!"_

Her departing words also rang in his mind.

" _I have faith in you Sōma-kun. You'll do great. I know you will."_

He then closed him eyes and did his best to recall the feelings he felt as he cooked his first dish that Erina would taste after their two years apart. Finding it a moment later, he quickly wrapped the cloth around his forehead and went to work on the yakisoba with a fervor that surprised everyone in the shop.

A few minutes later, he had gained his second win against his father.

Carefully untying the cloth from his head, he looked at it curiously before reverently wrapping it around his neck like a scarf. His father gave him a bemused look that Sōma was oblivious to as the father and son duo began cleaning up the store.

"So, I noticed that you had that same look as before. Wanna tell me 'bout it?" his father asked as they headed upstairs to their little apartment above the shop.

"Erina," Sōma began with no explaination.

"Hmmm?"

"She placed a lot of faith in me. I can't betray that," he held an end of Erina's cloth with a gentle care. "She's my best friend." Sōma looked up when his father patted him on the shoulder.

"You're a little closer now Sōma."

"Eh?" He then frowned when his father laughed uproariously. "What?"

"You'll understand when you get older," his father promised with a grin.

"Right," the redheaded boy deadpanned.

* * *

Had a little trouble writing this, as I had to keep it relatively in the realm of twelve year olds. Do they seem a little too mature? Maybe. But then again, these two have greater life experienc compared to their age group, so it can be excused a little. It's a best-friends stage for Sōma right now. Erina is in the same boat. But you know what they say about absence...

Anyway, Sōma will be in for a surprise when he meets Erina again after three years. The same for her as well.

Luckily enough, I have the basis of the next chapter saved. That's right! It's the failed chapter 2! It'll be heavily edited and rewritten so much, you won't even believe it was the same document!

Because how I wrote them now, the two will be different from their manga counterparts in a few aspects. Not too much, but enough for everyone to see that this is an AU.


	4. Chapter 4 Reunion

第四章

再会

Chapter 4

Reunion

* * *

"Hey Erina, you there?" Sōma said over the phone line. Of course it went straight to voice mail as always. "So…" And it would go on like this ever since he had gained his own cellphone around the same time she was granted one. The two of them would call one another, never catching one another at all, and just rambling on into the speaker just to fill that lonely void. They would then listen to the other's voice mails while just sitting there and wondering how much had changed in the other and their own self.

On those off chances that they did catch one another, the two of them would talk hours on end about school, classmates and the work they had put into their cooking. The two teenagers, both in them having graduated from their last year of middle school, would attempt to keep the conversation going because they both knew that it meant parting once more if they could not hold the line long enough.

"I'll be coming to Tōtsuki soon." He paused there to mull over his thoughts. "It's been three years since we last saw summer during break. I've grown since then; who I am now and who I was then really are two different people," he said into the phone, a grin on his face.

* * *

"So, uh, wait for me okay. It's been a long time since I saw my best friend." That brought a small blush to Erina's face as she listened to the recording on her phone three days later on the day of the High School Transfer Exam. The blonde had made it a ritual of listening to any of Sōma's voicemails the following morning to lend her some kind of courage for the day's events. It had actually helped on numerous occasions, not that anyone would ever find out that.

"Alright, goodnight." He had hoped to catch her right before bed apparently. Unfortunately, she had been in a meeting with the school board at the time that had dragged well into midnight. Sometimes it was difficult being her. Working so much and so hard compared to other students while never being able to have a real close friend to hang out with.

That part about not having a friend would change real soon though.

"Good morning," she mumbled to herself, holding her cellphone to her chest and praying for a successful day. "And good luck Sōma-kun."

* * *

"So what's on my agenda next Hisako-chan?" Erina asked her pinkette friend as they made their way from one of the smaller school buildings. To define her relationship with the Arato girl was difficult since the other girl treated her like a precious vase on pedestal as well, yet at the same time treated her like sister.

"We're to evaluate a selection of forty transfer students entering at the High School section," Hisako told the other girl after she had read the next item on the time table.

"So they have me doing grunt work, eh?" the blonde muttered a little angrily, wondering what the higher ups were thinking placing such a menial task upon her shoulders. She stopped however when she remembered that Sōma would be taking the exam today as well with others.

"Hisako-chan, hand me the files of the applicants," Erina told her secretary after Hisako received the files from the admissions office. Her friend said nothing and handed the blonde the thick pile. Erina herself did not see the upraised brow as the pinkette did so, though she would not have said anything of it.

She perused the names of the applicants, bored look on her face to mask the swelling hope and anticipation in her heart that threatened to turn her into a giddy high school girl. When she saw that in her group of applicants was Sōma, he heart skipped a beat for just a moment as she caught of his name. The picture that she saw to go with the name had her stopping for a moment, allowing her time to marvel at the growth that Sōma had gone through in the three years time.

He had grown his hair out a little, no longer being short as it once was. It actually made him look a little bit roguish with that cocky smile and those piercing golden eyes she noted with a tiny blush. What drew her attention, and joy, was the bit of cloth wrapped around his neck like a scarf. Last she saw of it, it was worn like a wrist band. To see it find a new home on his neck brought a smile to her face.

"Erina-sama?" Hisako asked as she looked over her shoulder to see what her friend was looking at so intently. "Yukihira Sōma? Milady, why are you interested in this young man? He's not even in the same league as you."

The smile the pinkette was given was one that she had never seen on Erina's face before. It was a serene, calm and gentle smile that reached even the blonde's eyes. For a moment, Hisako forgot what they were supposed to be doing. She was shocked out of her revelry a second later when Erina handed the pile of papers back to her and hurriedly made her way to the testing room.

"Milady?"

"Yukihira Sōma is a person I know who would stand before me with no fear of defeat. Because of that, he'll be the only one to pass."

"But, Erina-sama, you must be impartial about this. You can't just admit him because he's fearless. There's a limit to bias."

"I have confidence in him Hisako-chan." The serious look that Erina gave her friend was different than the other ones before. This one spoke volumes of a faith and trust that Hisako had never seen the blonde place in others, not even herself. "He's been in the kitchen since he was three. He went on a two year world culinary tour with his father, Asura." The pinkette gasped lightly when she heard such an illustrious legend had a child that would be attending here. "He won't lose."

As Erina made her way toward the testing room, Hisako tightened her hold on the files, a quiet rage built upon jealousy due to the relationship between Sōma and Erina. For such a commoner, even if the son of Asura, to have such a level of friendship with the blonde… she could not accept that such a man would taint her friend.

* * *

Sōma marveled at the appearance of the testing hall, once more allowing the message to sink in that this place, the school, was both massive and extravagant in nature. A little part of him realized that he may be out of place due to his pedestrian appearance, but he felt in his heart that more than anyone else in the forty group of people, he belonged here. It was not due to arrogance, but an understanding that he was here to prove his skills with a greater purpose compared to the other applicants.

'Wonder who the examiner will be,' the redhead wondered as he turned his head toward the doors that opened. He stopped on the spot when he saw that it was Erina and a pink haired girl entering the testing room.

"I was entrusted with your blocks entrance exam today," the blonde intoned as she stood before the group of forty. "My name is Nakiri Erina."

Sōma stopped listening there as she rambled on, wondering a little to himself if he looked presentable. He had last seen her three years ago, and in those three years, she had become a stunning beauty that left him just a little flushed. She had filled out nice, he choked a little when he averted his eyes, especially in some places.

"Boring," he heard Erina say. The redhead turned his head and caught her eye for a moment and received a mischievous smile in response, which he was not sure if it was meant for just him due to his blush or meant for all of the applicants.

"Bring out the kitchen tables instead."

Still could not tell.

He watched as she looked over the ingredients and then wrapped her delicate fingers around said item. Turning around, she held an egg up for all to see. "The main ingredient is eggs. Make me one dish to satisfy me and you'll pass." The smirk she wore seemed superior to everyone else, but to Sōma, it was his best friend challenging him.

"Anyone who wishes to withdraw may do so within the next minute." Erina watched as everyone save for Sōma scrambled away like cowards and the self-important cockroaches they were. She raised an amused brow as she saw the redhead take the cloth from around his neck and reverently wrap it around his head as he stepped forward.

"And to think, I thought I wouldn't meet you till class," Sōma told her with a grin.

"You still need to pass though Sōma-kun~" she replied in a light and melodious sing-song voice.

"Gotcha," he answered. "The usual?" he asked her with a smile.

"If you can't beat your eight year old self, then you don't deserve to be here," the blonde warned him with a waggle of her finger.

"Didn't I tell you? I've grown in the time you haven't seen me."

"Show me then."

"With pleasure."

* * *

This time when Erina tasted her best friend's third Transforming Furikake Gohan made especially for her, she really was sent into flavor Nirvana. The taste of the chicken wings, egg, onion and rice along with that unknown warmth wrapped around here in a tender and comforting cocoon that had her mewling in delight.

"You've outdone yourself this time Sōma-kun," she told him as she went for another bit of food. After she savored another bite, she asked him, "I noticed that the warmth in your food is stronger, what is that?"

"I was thinking of you when I was cooking this," he mumbled quietly, enough for only Erina to hear and not Hisako.

"I'm sorry?" she asked him, wondering if she heard right.

"I was thinking of you Erina. You placed a lot of faith in me, and I don't want to let you down." He scratched the side of his cheek while Erina blushed a little. Hisako really did not like this person even more due to the way he made Erina act around him. "Besides, cooking's all I know. This place kind of feels a little like home." The pinkette broke from her brooding to hand the file of Yukihira Sōma over to her friend.

"Well, I hope you like it here," Erina told him with a smile as she wrote her approval on his file. "You passed Sōma-kun. Congratulations." She watched as he pulled the cloth carefully from his head. He then wove it in back around his neck before smiling roguishly at her.

"It's a pleasure to have served you!" Sōma did not see the small blush that ignited over his friend's face.

* * *

I made this in three hours, unedited and ready to go. Unless it recieves heavy criticism, it's staying. So yeah, here we go. Enjoy!


	5. Chapter 5 A Promise

第五章

言い交す

Chapter 5

A Promise

* * *

There was something to be said about the place where the opening ceremony was being held for Tōtsuki. It was in the clearing off to the side of the academy surrounded by a sea of _sakura_ trees as far as the eyes could see. Because of that, it gave the ceremony this solemn and ceremonial feeling that could not be matched anywhere else.

However, that was not how Tadokoro Megumi was feeling right now. The blunette currently felt like dry heaving due to the heavy feeling that was settling in the pit of her stomach. It was all due to the notice she had received upon graduating to the High School section of Tōtsuki. To put it simply, if she received one more E grade or a failing grade, the girl could kiss her dreams of being a renowned chef goodbye.

However, she pushed those feelings of despair aside so that she could focus on the fact that she had so many of her hometown friends' and family's hopes and dreams riding on her shoulders. There was no way she could fail. Or so she hoped.

Shaking her head a few times to get rid of those depressing thoughts, the girl made her way into the enclosed area to attend the opening ceremony for the High School section of Tōtsuki.

"Megumi-chan!" The blunette waved to her friends and made her way to join them, feeling a little more relieved to be among familiar faces.

* * *

"So what part do you have in the opening ceremony?" Sōma asked his friend while he hung from one of the _sakura_ trees by his legs.

"I'm just going to be introduced as the valedictorian for the incoming class," the blonde told her as she flipped her hair to the side. The breeze soon caught it, holding her long golden hair in the wind, giving her a stunning pose.

"They want me to do a speech," the redhead lamented as he dropped from the tree, feet first of course. "I never really was one for making important monologues."

"Deal with it Sōma-kun," Erina said as she flicked him on the forehead. "It's very rare that anyone ever successfully passes the Transfer exam. Add to the fact that three-hundred people applied to the transfer, and you are the shining example of a diamond in the rough from the largest pool of would-be student transferees."

"Again with that," he groaned. "It's nothing, really. All it takes is guts to realize your own limitations and work to fix them to become a better person as well as a chef."

"Sōma-kun, most people don't have a Tōtsuki alumni-"

"He didn't graduate, remember?" he recanted that tidbit of information.

"That doesn't matter!" his friend hissed as she stamped her foot in frustration. "You're the son of the only person to rival Dōjima Gin! You are of a high pedigree despite your humble backgrounds, people need to respect your station!"

"Like you?" he told her with an even voice. The blonde froze at that, eyes wide at the verbal smack to the face that she had just received. Her eyes welled with tears as she attempted to run away from her friend, but could not do so when she found herself held from behind.

"Let me go Sōma-kun," Erina told him quietly, not really resisting his rather loose hold on her. "I don't want to be your friend anymore."

"I still want to be your friend despite how far away you are from me," the redhead told her truthfully.

"I'm right here," she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "I'm right here, Sōma-kun."

"Then remember we're Erina and Sōma."

"It's not that simple Sōma-kun. Everyone expects me to act and speak a certain way. We can't just be Erina and Sōma." Her voice was hoarse as she spoke, her mood falling as she realized the wall that society had placed between them was vast and impenetrable. "I'm God's Palate and your-"

"The Spawn of Asura," Sōma muttered with much distaste. "Gods, why does society have to do this to us? Why can't we live normally like others?" he asked her as he allowed her to turn in his arms.

"I don't know Sōma-kun," the blonde answered him truthfully as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I just don't know."

* * *

"Oh wow," Sōma said with wonder as he and Erina waited in the area for students who were to go to the stage. He had heard Senzaemon's keynote speech for the First-Year students of the High School Division of Tōtsuki. "Your gramps is still a badass Erina."

"You think you can make a follow that up Sōma-kun?" Erina asked him with an amused grin on her face.

"I can only hope," he honestly replied with an excited grin on his face. "Oh? That's me. Wish me luck!" With that, he departed for the stage.

"And now for the only student to pass the Transfer Exam!" the female student announced as she introduced the redheaded boy who was making his way toward the stage. To those with now real insight, he was a commoner who had somehow weaseled his way in. For those in the know, they realized he was special since the batch of would-be transferees was over three-hundred.

Only two of the crowd realized that the boy making his way to the podium was probably the biggest threat to their ambitions in this sea of nearly one thousand students. The redhead would also be the only person to openly challenge everyone as if it were all fun and games.

"Hey bro, isn't that?" Isumi Aldini said as he nudged his brother. The slim blonde paid no attention to his larger twin, as his attention was diverted to glaring daggers at the redhead. 'Is he still mad about that fake spider?'

"Oh man, why am I up here?" Sōma wondered aloud, his voice being carried through the PA system. "She said I had to do one since I made it out of three hundred transferees." He blew a raspberry. "There weren't that many when I was applying… right?"

Numerous people had stalled a bit, wondering whether or not they were being punked. Others narrowed their eyes, realizing that the boy was probably playing himself down so that he could not be taken seriously. That was quickly contradicted due to the casual way he carried himself, causing all but two of the cautious ones to lower their guards.

'This guy,' Kurokiba Ryō thought with his attention on redhead, 'He's hiding it well, but he's a fighter this one.' The eager smirk on his face had Alice wondering what her closest friend was thinking about.

'He's hiding something. Because it's faint, he's traveled the world in the last ten years. I know those foreign spices anywhere.' Hayama Akira then sniffed the cinnamon in his hand, remembering his own travels in the past.

"Anyway, I'll be aiming for the top." His words shocked everyone into submission, the students silently wondering where his sudden declaration came from. "I can't lose out to those who've never cooked for a customer, let alone served one. A friend of mine has placed her complete faith in me and I don't plan to disappoint her at all."

Numerous girls swooned at that, realizing that this over the top boy was here to impress a girl! That won their hearts easily as they wished him to succeed and impress said girl. Of course, a few girls were downtrodden that such a good looking young man already had a close female friend. Ah, well.

The more serious girls in the crowd were pissed beyond belief, as they, along with nearly all the boys, realized they were being looked down upon by this common trash! Successful transferee or not, he was going to get his when they found their opening!

"You do know you've probably made an enemy out of everyone, right?" Erina stated more than asked. She felt a headache coming on due to the brash and cocky speech her friend had spoken up on stage.

"That's just fine with me," he told her with a smirk. "They've had three years of education in the culinary arts, I've had real life kitchen experience since I was three."

"So you've pretty much played them by declaring a challenge against those who think you're an easy target when you're not." She actually had to give him a point for realizing he could use his, otherwise publicly unknown, skill set to his advantage.

"There's that too."

"But you do know I'm going to be number one thought," she told her matter-of-factly.

"Is that you talking or everyone's expectations?" His armor-piercing question once more rendered her silent. "Because of everyone in this place, I couldn't tell where my friend was. I found her though, hidden away, constrained by everyone's expectations of herself. And I realized something."

"What Sōma-kun?"

"There's only one way to free my friend from the burden of her own ability: I have to beat her at her best with my best." A fierce wind picked up at his declaration, scattering _sakura_ petals around him adding to the impact of his words. "I'm going to free you from that prison Erina. That way you won't have to worry about others threatening to tear us apart. I swear to you that I won't ever let you be alone again."

Erina felt her heart flutter a little at her friend's declaration, realizing that, once more, he was doing all of this for her. For three years everyone had treated her as a treasure with fear and trepidation, weary of setting her off. None of them were fearless in meeting her head-on and matching her blow for blow. No one was like Sōma, because alone saw her for Erina and not her for her ability.

She then engulfed her friend in a happy hug, thankful that her dense, thick-headed and oblivious friend was back by her side. The two friends shared matching smiles, realizing that this close connection with another person, a real, earnest best friend, was what they were missing for so long.

Neither Erina nor Sōma caught on to the fact that they only felt this way about each other and no one else. Then again, one was a sheltered ojou, or rather a bomb-sheltered ojou, while the other was a dense human that put dark matter to shame.

* * *

Not too far from their little sitting area, Hisako bit her lip as she realized that she had helped ostracize her friend in a roundabout manner. Now that she thought about it, was she really Erina's friend if all she wanted to do was serve Erina? Compared to Sōma's close relationship with the blonde Nakiri, Hisako's was more akin to a master-servant relationship with the pinkette as the servant.

The pinkette patted the sides of her face to find her resolve and shake her doubts. People do not change by brooding over their mistakes, but rather by rectifying them through action! Hisako came to the clear understanding that what she needed to be was Erina's friend first before being her secretary.

* * *

Author's note: There are none :p

But really, please review people. It helps me gather data on how the chapters are recieved which I use to build a foundation for the next chapter.


	6. Chapter 6 Display of Strength

第六章

力の誇示

Chapter 6

Display of Strength

* * *

"Has everyone found a partner yet?" a school aide to all thirty of the students before him. He felt sorry for one student in particular due to the fact she was forced to pair up with the transfer student, Yukihira Sōma. The kid was even oblivious to all of the hate filled and spiteful glares he was getting.

"Oh? Nice to meet you," the aide heard Sōma say to Tadokoro Megumi. The blonde aide felt bad for the girl, knowing that this was probably going to be her last day here due to who was going to be their sensei for the day.

* * *

"I'm Yukihira Sōma. You said your name was Tadokoro Megumi, right?" the redhead asked the blunette beside him once their class had made its way into the test kitchen. He looked down when he realized the girl was squatting on the ground drawing the kanji for man on her hand and eating it.

"Er, is that supposed to be some sort of stress relief exercise you do?" he asked the girl. She looked up toward him and nodded glumly. "Why so stressed then?"

"It's because of my grades, if I get another E rating in class, I'll be expelled," she told him straight.

"Well if you're always nervous, of course you're going to make mistakes. It's bound to happen." He shrugged lightly and smirked as he eyed the room around him. "I bet the glares everyone's sending my way aren't helping either."

"N-No. Not really."

"Well then," he said as he opened his knife case and pulled the second knife out, looking it over for any imperfections. "Everyone is going to see why I said I will reach the top." The knife he was holding was then thrown into the air where it twirled around.

At that exact moment, Roland Chapelle was making his way to his seat at the front of the kitchen. The elder Frenchman caught the glinting metal and heard the whirling of a knife in the air and followed its descent. Everyone else watched as well when Yukihira Sōma grabbed it right be the handle a little to his side.

Though the students saw a cocky smirk of an upstart transfer student, Roland himself saw the silhouette of a former Tōtsuki student appear behind the redhead. The blonde Frenchman smirked, realizing that the transfer student was not all talk if he really was the son of Saiba Jōchirō.

'Interesting.' He cleared his throat and began. "Good morning, my young _apprentis_."

"Good morning," the entire class chorused, though Megumi more or less mumbled it in fright.

"Appla tea?" Roland definitely knew that Sōma was the son of that man, as Jōchirō had said the same exact words many years ago. "Oh wait, apprentices! That's right." He watched as boy rapped his head with his knuckles. "Been a while since I was in France. My French is kinda rusty."

"You went to France Sōma-kun?" Shy, little Megumi asked the boy.

"It was about seven or so years ago as part of the Culinary Tour my father and I went on," he told her offhandedly while waving his hand. "I did get to meet Shinomiya-dono." People could say what they wanted to, but he at least knew how to respect those who had talent. "But let me tell you, he's kind of a grouch."

The atmosphere that descended then had the effect of causing Megumi to shrink back into herself, wishing to disappear from the kitchen. Roland raised an eyebrow when he caught the smirk on Sōma's face and realized that the boy was actually wanting his classmates riled up.

'So he's hoping to see who is a real chef who speaks through his or her cooking rather than someone who uses underhanded tactics to win.' His eyes zeroed in on the pair of students still glaring at Sōma and knew that those two would be humiliated right in this kitchen. 'Hmph. Show me what you have Yukihira Sōma.'

"I'm so doomed," Megumi mumbled quietly as tears streamed from her eyes once Roland told all of the students how the grading for today would be going. "Of all the teachers to get, I just had to wind up with Chapelle-sensei."

"Is he that bad?" the redhead asked her, hoping to distract her momentarily from her woes.

"He once failed an entire class of fifty, eighteen of whom were expelled as a result of the E ratings." Okay, so maybe asking her why she was worried backfired. "He's called the Chef that Never Smiles because of his demeanor. Oh, I'm so doomed."

"Then all we need to do is give it our all, right?" The blunette looked up to see a very determined and fierce look in Sōma's eyes as he spoke. "I'm quite sure if Megumi can find her courage, she'd be a world-class chef."

The warmth, kindness and faith in his praise for her, someone who was a failure, caused everyone to pause and glare at the duo. Several of the students realized that they could crush two birds with one stone if they could sabotage the pair, leading to the Dunce's expulsion and the transfer student getting crushed. Neither of them belonged in such a high class culinary school. If the higher ups in the school were too foolish to realize that, then they as students would take it upon themselves to cleanse their prestigious school.

"Boeuf Bourguignon. That is what you'll be cooking for today's class," the blonde Frenchman told his students as his aide wrote the instructions up on the whiteboard. "You have two hours to complete the dish. I would recommend that you serve it once you complete the dish." He saw all the startled looks everyone gave him, save for the confident Yukihira, and raised his hand. "Begin."

"Oh wow, it's been a while since I made Boeuf Bourguignon." It actually took Sōma a few attempts to get the French name right with his native Japanese tongue. 'I wonder if he has the standard recipe written up there.'

"Can I leave it to you Tadokoro?" he asked his partner, hoping to raise her confidence with his trust in her.

"O-Of course!" The boy was back about two minutes later, having confirmed his suspicion about the recipe being the standard type. Sōma discreetly glanced around himself and realized that only a few others were watching him intently, glares directed right at himself. 'And so it begins.'

* * *

Nearly an hour and a half later, Nakiri Erina came strolling into their kitchen with her secretary in tow. Several students stopped what they were doing to gawk at the beauty, but quickly returned to their tasks so as to impress the beautiful girl and win recognition from her.

"Erina-dono," Roland acknowledged her with a bow of his head once she made her way to his table. "What brings you here?" he asked her quietly when she took a seat right at his table.

"I had a feeling something interesting was going on in here," she told him offhandedly as she looked over the class. "I see you have Yukihira Sōma in your class. How well is the transfer student coming along?" Behind her, Hisako was perplexed at the detached way the blonde was referring to her childhood friend. Then again because they were of different perceived stations, it would make sense to act this way in public, at least for Erina.

Sōma on the other hand could act anyway he could without repercussion due to how he had introduced himself to the rest of the school. Due to his offhanded and casual disposition, he could act natural around Erina without repercussion on either of their parts. Really ingenious is what he was to come up with a plan like that.

"Well-"

They were cut off when all heads turned toward the quivering Megumi. "What's this white stuff on the beef?" The blunette looked up to see that Sōma had a vicious smirk on his face that had her skin crawling. Erina knew then and there that this was what the redhead was hoping for when he made that declaration, challenging the entire school.

"Tadokoro, find your courage." The serious tone in his voice had her frozen for a second as she saw the blazing determination in his eyes. "To whoever poured salt into our stew, I'd like to thank you," he shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "I'm going to show the reason why I'll be taking the top."

Erina watched disinterested as he took the cloth from around his neck and tied it around his forehead. On the inside, she was fuming that someone in this school would have the audacity to attempt sabotage of another students work! But she was intrigued as well to see how Sōma would work around this setback. He boasted quite a bit back during the opening ceremony about three hours ago. Now was the time to show everyone that he had the skills to back his words.

When Sōma brought forth the Boeuf Bourguignon, the blonde girl raised a delicate brow as Roland pushed his fork against the beef and found it sinking in a little before gently springing back.

"I recall that your team had an 'accident'." Sōma nodded his head, grin still in place. "How were you able to recover from that?" His answer was in the redhead's hand. "Honey?"

"Yep, honey has protease in it that allows gives it the ability break down of proteins. The same can also be said of pineapples." He then shrugged his shoulders casually. "Had they thrown on Kosher or Sea Salt, I would have happily served it as was, since those two tenderize meat. But since it was table salt, I had to show these guys why I mean business."

"What do you mean by that?" Roland asked as he cut into the beef.

"Taste it and I'll tell you." The redhead then grinned roguishly as he held up another fork for Megumi. "Wanna try it?" Erina and her secretary then watched as the redhead then grabbed two more forks from the drawers. "Would Hishoko and Nakiri like to try as well?"

Hisako bit back the retort that was on the tip of her tongue as she accepted the fork and speared a cut piece of meat on the utensil. When all four of them tasted the honey tenderized meat, they stood still for a moment as every single one of them felt their taste buds being assaulted by the tenderness of the beef along with the sweetness of the honey. The flavor did not stop as when they savored it further, the sweet flavor of the honey soon morphed into the smoky and powerful flavor of barbeque.

Oh, she felt like her entire being was melting away, being consumed by the rich flavor of the honey and robust taste of the barbeque; it was that good! Though she had doubts about his character, Hisako had to begrudgingly acknowledge that Yukihira Sōma was indeed a fine chef.

Erina at the same time once more tasted that intangible ingredient that was once more prevalent in this dish. This time however it was accompanied by a fierce and radical zing that practically screamed, "Pay attention to me! I'm a f*cking bad*ss!"

"Chapelle-sensei smiled?!" all of the students shouted as one when they saw their sensei taste the Dunce-Upstart duo's Boeuf Bourguignon. Never before had Roland tasted a finer and more savory Boeuf Bourguignon. Not only that, but it was better than Jōchirō's when he was a student.

"I see, that is what you meant when you said this was a serious business," Roland admitted as he savored another bit of the beef. "It's a custom recipe."

"Yep, it's my own recipe: Sweet Honey Barbequed Boeuf Bourguignon," Sōma revealed, shocking the other students who had drool coming from their mouths as the smell of the redhead's dish permeated the kitchen. "Honey if used to tenderize meat gives it a distinctive barbeque flavor as it caramelizes."

"It's so amazing," Hisako admitted as she looked at the beef hungrily. "But to get it get both flavors together in one dish must have been difficult." She was startled when she realized that it was not just the beef itself that had honey in it. "You used honey in the broth as well?!"

"Yep. I had experimented with this dish when I had returned from our trip around the world. It took me a while to get it right, but cooking the meat just a minute longer gives it the smoky taste of barbeque while letting the broth air for a minute extra gives it the sweetness needed."

"This receives an A marking." Megumi smiled happily, realizing that the boy she was teamed up with was actually pretty amazing. "However." The blunette froze at Roland's tone of voice, worried something bad was going to happen. "I regret that I do not have the authority to give you a higher grade."

"It was a pleasure serving you," he said as he gently untied his headband and replaced it around his neck. The double meaning in his words were not missed by Roland, Erina or Hisako.

Sōma watched intently as Erina stood from her seat and excused herself, thanking Roland for allowing her to sit in on one of his classes. The blonde paused at the doorway and looked over her shoulder to regard Sōma evenly.

"It seems I was not wrong in passing you during your transfer exam." The small smirk she wore on her face had numerous people stunned, realizing that Erina herself had acknowledged the upstart transfer student. "But if you think I'll be beaten by that, then you're sorely mistaken Yukihira Sōma."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," he admitted as he shrugged his hands and shoulders. "If you were beaten by that, I'd be sorely unimpressed that you'd go down that easily." His confident smirk met her stern glare. The two of them just stared each other down before Erina flipped her hair and departed from the kitchen.

* * *

As Sōma began cleaning his and Megumi's station his phone vibrated, telling him he had an e-mail. Flipping his cellphone open, he opened the e-mail and saw that it was from Erina. Once he finished reading it, he chuckled a little.

 _Subject: Your recipe_

 _Re: I loved it! It was so delicious! You have to make it for me when we have time!_ \\(^o^)/

"What are you chuckling about Sōma-kun?" Megumi asked curiously when she saw the redhead put away his cellphone.

"Nothing much," he told her with a grin. "Just a friend of mine wants me to cook her something."

"I-Is she your girlfriend?" the blunette stuttered out.

"Nah, she's my best friend is all," he admitted as he scratched the side of his face.

"I wish I had a friend like you," Megumi murmured as she poked her pointer fingers together.

"Would you like to be my friend?" His question surprised the girl so much that she froze for a moment. "I mean, you were pretty cool when you became focused Tadokoro. You were pretty determined to when you got stuck in too."

"I'd love to!" she admitted, happy that someone was actually being friendly and kind to her simply because he saw something in her no one else saw.

"Then as celebration for becoming friends and passing our first day, how about you try my dish?" Megumi thought nothing of it, thinking Sōma was probably talking about a new dish he was working on. She began to vehemently refuse when the scent of dried sardines and strawberry jam assaulted her nose.

Roland rubbed his temple when he heard Megumi cry out in tears after she was forced to eat one of Yukihira's horrible dishes.

"He really is your son," the blonde Frenchman muttered as gazed intently at the son of Asura who was tormenting poor Megumi with another offered sardine. The corner of his mouth rose in a smirk as he thought, 'Let's see if these school years will just be as interesting with your son here.'

* * *

I'm going to be generating my own encounters between Erina and Sōma, as there aren't that many in the manga. People seemed to not pick up on the fact that Sōma himself is OOC, as he has more of hint of maturity and overall badassery around himself. Maybe it's because my story's a far departure from the original is why that's overlooked. Ah well. Be seeing you guys around.

Read and review!


	7. Chapter 7 Proof of Worth

第七章

値の証拠

Chapter 7

Proof of Worth

* * *

Most other students avoided interacting with Yukihira Sōma the moment class was let out for the day. Whenever they saw him, the students would quickly finish or halt whatever they were doing and leave his general vicinity. Several students would later recall that the redhead was chewing on a squid tentacle and looking at a paper intently as he made his way from the main school buildings.

Sōma paused a moment to look around himself and found that Erina and Hisako were nearby, having finished some important task for the day.

"Hey Erina, Arato!" he shouted calling towards his best friend and her secretary.

"Sōma-kun, what are you doing all the way out here?" Erina asked as she made her way over to her redheaded friend. Hisako sighed a little and trotted over as well, curious to see what predicament Yukihira Sōma was going to get himself into this time around.

"I'm heading to the Polar Star Dormitory!" he told Erina as he rounded the corner. The two girls blinked a bit when they saw him stand there frozen as if he were staring death in the face. Both Erina and Hisako were startled when they heard him shout in frustration, "This place is freaking huge!"

The two girls rounded the corner as well and gaped in shock at the near endless dirt road that lay before them. Though both knew how massive Tōtsuki was due to its wealth and influence, neither of them realized that the grounds of the school went farther than they first believed.

"A company car can't make it up this way can it?" Erina asked her secretary.

"Not with the condition of the path Erina-sama," Hisako answered her friend truthfully. The blonde sighed wearily as she gazed forlornly at the lengthy path before them.

"I can trek this if I pace myself, you two don't have to come with me ya know." He smiled disarmingly at the two, hoping that Erina more than Hisako would back down from the arduous task of trekking to the Polar Star Dormitory.

"It's fine," Erina replied coldly as she flipped her hair. She was a little pissed that her childhood friend, now best friend, would think so little of her physical abilities to not be able to trek a long path. "Besides, I have business up there with one of the residents." And with that, she began on the road to the Polar Star Dormitory.

"Oi! Wait up!"

* * *

"Did your family bring a little bit of the entire world to this place?" Sōma asked his friend after they had passed numerous building with differing architectural design. "I saw a farmhouse, a windmill, massive greenhouse and even a massive stadium like building."

"Tōtsuki is in essence a self-sustaining Culinary Academy Sōma-kun," Erina explained to her friend. "All those buildings are for producing and maintaining the resources that students in both the Junior High and High School Divisions use to learn with or make dishes with."

"If I remember correctly, my dad said he and Gin-senpai used Shokugekis to claim land surrounding land for the Polar Star, pretty much making the dorm self-sufficient for years to come," the redhead remembered, recalling the conversation about his dad's time in Tōtsuki. Hisako was shocked that two of Tōtsuki's own Elite Ten had created a paradise within the small 'country' of Tōtsuki.

"That's right, I remember the fact that students have to pay a few to use some of the facilities near the Polar Star Dorms," the blonde muttered as they continued on.

"How far does Polar Star's sphere of influence stretch exactly?" Hisako asked the other two with a hint of worry in her voice.

"I think that greenhouse and its surrounding lands is the farthest it reaches if I'm recalling the territory map of Tōtsuki right." The blonde tapped her chin with a delicate finger, hoping what she had remembered was correct. "Yeah it is."

"So why exactly are you heading to Polar Star Dorms Sōma-kun?" the Nakiri princess asked her friend. "You know I could have rented you a nearby apartment free of charge."

"And if it got out that I was using that apartment, then it would reflect badly not only on you, but your family and Tōtsuki as well," Sōma pointed out, wondering if the blonde had thought that comment through. "Erina, I know you mean well, but I'm a man. If I can't stand on my own two feet with my own strength, then what's the point?"

"But why Polar Star Dorms? The apartments around here don't cost too much." Hisako and Erina were surprised when the redhead suddenly stopped and slumped forward a little.

"I just checked my account a few hours ago. I only have six-thousand, eight-hundred and eleven yen all together." The pinkette gaped at the fact that despite Sōma being the son of a renowned chef, he had practically no money to his name at the moment.

"Your dad's an absent minded idiot sometimes, you know that Sōma-kun?" Erina muttered as she rubbed her temples to relieve the headache she felt coming on due to Jōchirō's quirks. "And you can be just as dense as well."

"I'm really hurt you know," the redhead drawled sarcastically as he held his chest. "It's not that you haven't insulted me like that a thousand times before." Erina just huffed indignantly at his cocky grin, before turning on her heel and making her way toward the Polar Star Dormitory. Sōma soon caught up to her and began to talk animatedly about his day while Hisako trailed behind in a subdued manner.

The pinkette could see that besides herself, Yukihira Sōma was the only person able to draw out the unseen side of Nakiri Erina. This unseen side was the open and carefree personality that flourished with happiness and joy due to friendship and kindness. At the same time however, the redhead was able to draw out a variety of emotions and facial expressions that the pinkette had never seen on her friend's face before.

Yukihira Sōma really was something else to be able to draw forth such a wide expanse of emotions from his childhood friend despite the long three year hiatus of their friendship. Though the two of them did not realize it, they were riding on the coattails of their bygone years as children, trying to replicate those happy times during these turbulent and dangerous years at Tōtsuki. Hisako knew that the two of them were aware of the delicate roof hanging over their joy filled times since she could see the somewhat pained glances they would shoot the other were they were unaware.

It is all about making new memories with those near and dear to one's own self before outside circumstances rip bonds apart. That was how people in the past dealt with departures and that is how people of today deal with the goodbyes to come. It is that, drowning away sorrows or closing off one's self to block out the pain. The first is the most painful when it is time to depart; the second most damaging to one's own body and mind; the last the most self-destructive in the long run.

Picking the poison that will be the least painful is always the question.

* * *

"So…" Sōma trailed off the moment all three of them stood before the gates of the Polar Star Dormitories in the light of the fading sun. He had nothing to comment about as the silence, due to shock of fright or awe, was all the suitable answer that needed to fill the silence.

"Shall we?" he asked rhetorically while he took in the rather dilapidated feel of the entire dormitory. In truth, the entire thing looked comparable to a mansion, what with its sheer size and aura. A moment late, the redhead made his way through the gates with Erina and Hisako in tow.

When they made their way into the foyer of the massive dorm house, all three of them had a horrible sinking feeling that something horrific was going to happen to them. This was evident as the moment the door slammed shut behind them with no assistance both Erina and Hisako jumped behind Sōma while gripping onto his shoulders in fright.

"Do you think Fumio-san still heads this dorm?" Leave it to the redheaded boy to mouth off casually during a scary situation.

"Oho, my reputation must proceed me if a student not of the Polar Star Dormitories knows my name." All three turned around as one to stare at the owner of the voice. A second later, a clap was heard and lights came to life on the walls as well as above, revealing a massive chandelier.

"How's that even possible?" the redhead asked as he looked over the ancient looking lady. "My dad described you to me and you look exactly the same as he recalled you from his time here." A second later he received a chop to the head that had the boy crashing to the ground, eyes blank due to the force behind the blow.

"Never call a woman old young man, unless you want to feel an otherworldly amount of pain," the matron of the Polar Star Dorms grunted, eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"Was that really necessary Daimido-san?" Erina asked as she poked her semi-conscious friend in the cheek. She held back a giggle as well as a smile when he snorted a little and attempted to bat her finger away like a kitten would. "Not that I don't agree with you, which I do, but that was maybe a little excessive."

"Not as excessive as causing thirty-nine potential students to withdraw from transfer exams I suppose?" Fumio teased the young girl, calling her out on her own excessive behavior during the testing yesterday. The older woman then turned serious as she regarded the two girls before her, more the blonde than the pinkette. "I assume this isn't a leisure trip up here to escort this kid?" she said as she nudged the boy with her slipper covered foot.

"That would be telling," the blonde told her offhandedly. The old matron just shrugged her shoulders not wanting to push the delicate issue. She had a little bit of an idea, seeing how defensive the usually cold and distant Nakiri Erina was acting when questioned concerning the transfer student.

"So how does this kid know about me? Something to do with his father being a former resident of mine." She eyed the boy with a calculating gaze, trying to see if she could see any resemblance between him and the near hundreds of residents.

"Pop was right," Sōma grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor. "You have a mean karate-chop Fumio-san."

"Only person has ever made me chop him atop the head before you came along," the matron of the Polar Star murmured as her eyebrow twitched once more as she remembered that devil of a man. "So your Jōchirō's brat eh?" She smirked at his serious nod of the head, realizing that the boy was here to beat his own father's milestones. "Your father made into this dorm on his first try. Do you think you can do better?"

Erina watched disinterestedly as Sōma gently took the cloth wrapped like a scarf from around his neck and tied it around his head, confident grin on his face. She knew that the glint in his eyes was one of fierce determination, as only a few things could ignite that fiery passion he had in his heart. One of those was impressing her with his cooking, the other was showing that he could step out of the vast shadow his father had cast and show the world he could make a name for himself.

"Good luck then Yukihira-kun," Erina told her redheaded friend, confident in the fact that her childhood friend would pass on his first try.

"Thanks!" Sōma replied with a grin as he looked over his shoulder at his best friend. "So, what ingredients will I be working with?" he asked the older woman as they made their way to the Polar Star's kitchen.

"C'mon Hisako, we need to find Isshiki-senpai." With that, Erina and her pinkette friend made their way to where they presumed Isshiki Satoshi was roomed in the Polar Star Dormitory.

* * *

After nearly thirty minutes of fruitless hunting, having searched high and low, Hisako and Erina commandeered one of the Polar Star's baths to freshen up before returning to their hunt for eccentric Tōtsuki Elite Seventh Seat. They were surprised when they saw that Tadokoro Megumi was bathing as well. Though it took some time to talk the girl down, the duo eventually were able to get the girl to relax in their presence so that the atmosphere was not awkward for the two temporary boarders.

That flew out of the window in a flash right dead into oncoming traffic when the sliding glass door opened to reveal an eager Yukihira Sōma dressed down. Luckily enough he had a towel covering the part that defined him as a male so as to not scar anyone who caught sight of him too much.

"Eh?" Sōma blinked for a second, his mind trying to register the scene before him. Another second later he realized that Sōma Jr. was reacting to the beautiful sight offered right in front of him. Quickly slamming the door shut with one hand while covering his front with the other, the redhead shouted, "I'm sorry!"

Megumi was already sobbing quietly to herself in the tub as both Hisako and Erina kicked the door out, causing it to come unhinged and impact the boy without the glass shattering. As they did so, both the blonde and pinkette were shouting, "You idiot! Check the baskets next time around before coming in!"

Inside her head, Erina was silently wondering how the situation would have gone had she and Hisako not been here with Megumi. She then blushed a deep red as a part of her mind wondered how she would have reacted had it been only herself in the bath.

As the redheaded boy lay there in a heap with the door above him and the wall behind him, he flashbacked to when he last saw Erina disrobed. Though they had been younger at the time, Erina was just as embarrassed that he saw her delicate feminine body in au naturel. This time however, Sōma could saw that his childhood friend had really grown up.

'She really has become beautiful,' he thought as he lay there.

* * *

When he was finally in his new room, number three-hundred and three, Sōma realized that he had not checked his cell in a while. Fishing it out of his dirty pants, the redhead flipped it open to see that an e-mail was sent to him about three minutes ago.

 _Subject: Polar Star Dormitories_

 _Re: You passed, and using only leftover ingredients no less! I knew you'd pass! I'll visit in the mornings when I can since I we're so close now! It'll be so much fun!_ (^_^) _Make sure to visit me too, okay? Or else I'll get real mad._ :[

A moment later another e-mail was sent to him.

 _Subject: Your Public Etiquette_

 _Re: Do that again and I will castrate you slowly with a_ _salt covered_ _rusted spoon!_ (-\\\\\\-)

Sōma laughed nervously, realizing that Erina was embarrassed about being seen nude with two other girls in the bath by him no less. Not once did he pay attention to the thought that maybe his blonde friend was hoping it was just herself that was caught in that situation. Why would he, she was his best friend, he could not see her like that… right?

'What in the heck am I feeling?' he wondered as he laid down on his bed.

* * *

How close am I too the edge? Very, very close. I'm still up after five hours of since midnight. I've lollygagged around watching videos. Please forgive me for the slow update! Please review!


	8. Chapter 8 Acceptance

Warning: the beginning of this chapter is lime-esque. As such, I'd like those who are underaged to turn back now. If you're familiar with this mangaka's previous works, then you'll think this tame. Please proceed then.

This fanfic has now been bumped to M in accordance to the Fanfiction Rules & Guidelines for fanfic ratings.

* * *

第八章

信受

Chapter 8

Acceptance

* * *

"S-Sōma-kun!" Erina shrieked as she jumped up in fright off the stool she was sitting on as her childhood friend opened the sliding door to the Polar Star's baths. She felt her heart begin to beat faster as the redhead stepped in, smirk on his face while closing the sliding door behind him. "W-What are you doing?" she asked in a hoarse voice, her throat dry.

"I haven't seen you in a long time you know," he told her as he stepped forward. The blonde felt a chill go down her spine in both fear and anticipation as the boy made his way toward her. She had not even realized she was cornered until she felt her back hit the tiled wall.

"You really have changed, Erina," he whispered quietly into her ear, his warm breath tickling her sensitive appendage while at the same time sending a feeling of excitement running through her body.

"So soft," he murmured as his placed the back of his hand on her cheek. The boy then pushed her hair back out the way so that it was held behind her ear. Her lips went dry when she saw that his face was coming closer while his hand cupped her cheek so as to kiss her.

"Sōma-kun," Erina mumbled when she felt his own breath mingle with hers. A second later, she closed her eyes and leaned in to meet his lips with her own. Her first kiss turned a little hot and heavier when he angled his head and licked her bottom lip. Erina did not know what to think when he tongue then made contact with her own.

"S-Sōma-kun, we shouldn't," she told him as they pulled away from each other, a thin trail of saliva connecting their tongues. "T-This is so indecent…" The blonde felt a quiver run through her body as Sōma's hand trailed down from her face and down to shoulder. She mewled in delight when she then felt it run up and down her back lightly, almost making her lose her grip on the towel covering her modesty.

"I want to see more of this face," the redhead murmured as he trailed kisses from her mouth to her neck then collarbone. "I want to see your flushed cheeks, hear your heavy breathing and see you come apart in my hands." His voice had the needed effect he was looking for, as her grasp on the small piece of cloth loosened, exposing her breasts and her womanhood to his hungry gaze.

"No! Don't look at me!" Erina cried out as she covered her face out of embarrassment, feeling his heated look ravage her entire body. A shock of electricity soon sent waves throughout her body when she felt one of his fingers begin to tease her lower lips.

The cry she let loose as he began to assault her with his finger was enough to shock her out her _sake_ induced erotic dream. Erina blushed a deep crimson when she realized that the panties she was wearing were soaked thoroughly and that she was sweating profusely causing her clothes to become damp with perspiration.

"Milady?" Hisako mumbled tiredly as she rubbed her weary eyelids. "Is something wrong?" she asked her blonde friend once she stretched her body.

"I'm fine," Erina lied coolly to her friend, playing down the fact that she just had an erotic dream that caused her to break down in ecstasy. She saw Satoshi smiling serenely at her, while only wearing just an apron, while sitting on the floor with a plate of Spanish mackerel before him and raised a brow at him. "Is something going on Isshiki-senpai?"

"Ah yes," Satoshi replied as he stood up with the plate in hand and laid it down before his underclassman. "You're probably hungry. Please eat and you'll find out."

When the blonde bit into the piece of fish flesh on the tip of her fork, she could taste the flavor of spring traveling throughout her entire body. The combination of salt and pepper pulled out the natural taste of the pan fried mackerel as well as complimenting the cabbage puree, giving it the strong taste of spring bursting forth from winter due to Japanese pepper powder adding an extra kick. Due to her God's Tongue ability, Erina could just imagine spring in Japan exploding into life, pushing away the depressing winter days.

"As always, Isshiki-senpai knows how to create such a magnificent dish with such simple ingredients." Though Hisako heard praise for the second-year student, Satoshi himself could hear the conflict within her voice. It was subtle, but it was there nonetheless. The hazel haired young man knew from experience that his underclassman was a prideful young woman who believed that the pinnacle of the culinary world was made of only the most regal of dishes.

That would have been what he thought, had he not heard the very fast rumors about Erina approving of the taste of a Boeuf Bourguignon. Both of them knew that the French dish was originally a peasant dish about a century or so ago. But what caught his attention was the fact that not only did she praise the dish, but she had praised a mere commoner for making such a dish that met her standards.

"I'm glad you liked it," Satoshi admitted with a disarming smile.

"Has Yukihira-kun tasted this yet?" the blonde asked as she looked around room of fellow first-year Marui Zenji. When she saw that her childhood friend was nowhere around, she looked back down at the dish Satoshi had cooked and found that the other end of the mackerel had a chunk missing.

Her nose as was soon assaulted by the heavenly scent of Spanish mackerel, freshly cooked white rice as well as recently brewed kelp tea. Sakaki Ryōko, Yoshino Yūki, and Ibusaki Shun were then roused from their sleep when the smell became even stronger, indicating that the dish was in its final stages of preparation.

"So how many people are up right now Isshiki-senpai?" everyone heard Sōma's cheeky voice ask through the speaking tube nearby.

"Including myself, six people are currently up and about." Erina knew something was up the moment she saw the impish grin on the hazel haired young man's face as well as the mischievous glint in his eyes. "Erina-kun is also up as well, so you better bring your best game."

"I always do!" The fierce determination they all heard ooze from Sōma's voice had all of the now awake students eager in anticipation for the dish that Yukihira Sōma would be creating tonight. The Polar Star Dormitory residents had heard the rumor that the redhead had used a custom recipe of Boeuf Bourguignon that had caused Roland Chapelle to smile for the first time ever and were excited to see if the boastful boy really had high-class cooking skills.

* * *

About five minutes later, the redhead came into the room carrying a tray with six bowls of what appeared to be Onigiri Chazuke with chopsticks for all. He of course had his trademark headband wrapped around his head along with his roguish smile that had everyone eager to taste his food. Erina though blushed deeply as she remembered her not too recent dream about her best friend.

Looking down at the rice ball in the kelp tea, the blonde blushed profusely as she thanked Sōma for the meal along with the others. When she had the piece of rice and fish in between her chopsticks, Erina hesitated slightly realizing his own two hands had made this dish a few minutes ago. Bracing herself, the blonde Nakiri allowed herself to partake of Sōma's dish.

Though everyone had the same thought that the dish was perfect for this time of year, as it exemplified the feeling of spring, Erina herself had a very different reaction. She had instead flashed back to the years spent with her friend during the spring breaks, playing in the rice fields when they had the free time to do so. Not only that, but she had remembered the fun times spent just being in his warm and tactless presence while trying some of his delicious dishes cooked with her in mind.

That same ability that she cursed with a passion soon gave her the mental image of being lovingly and warmly caressed by Sōma due to her dream. The dish evoked such warm taste as well as a secure and comforting feeling that reminded Erina of the fact that her best friend really was here with her in Tōtsuki.

Sōma had meanwhile blushed a little when he saw his blonde best friend flush red and sigh contently. He averted his gaze, once more questioning the strange feeling he was gaining in the pit of his stomach.

"A fine dish Sōma-kun," Satoshi admitted as he and the others finished off their Mackerel Onigiri Chazuke.

"Happy to have served you," Sōma replied with a grin as he removed his headband and replced the cloth around his neck like a scarf once more.

"I'll say," Yūki exclaimed before sighing contently. "You talked big at the opening ceremony, but I guess you really do have skills." Ryōko chuckled a little behind her hand as she remembered his boastful speech as well.

"You're a rather gutsy fellow at that," the buxom purple-haired girl admitted. "So what did you mean by not losing to people who've never cooked for a customer, let alone served one, Sōma-kun?"

"Yukihira Sōma has been in the kitchen cooking under his father from the age of three." It was not only the bit of information of that surprised the Polar Star residents, but also the fact that the person who had admitted it was also Nakiri Erina.

"No bad," shaggy haired Shun mumbled as he glanced at the redheaded boy near him. "Are the rumors also true that you were the one to pass him out of the entire batch of nearly three-hundred transfer student hopefuls?"

"I had my doubts about why she had admitted Yukihira-san," Hisako answered for her friend. She caught the somewhat annoyed glance from her friend, but shrugged it off. "But after tasting his Sweet Barbeque Boeuf Bourguignon and now this," she told the others as she motioned to the cleaned bowls sitting in the center of their little circle, "I have to agree that Yukihira-san is more than capable of backing his own words."

"This dish is an example of Sōma-kun's growth," Nakiri Erina told the others, causing them to look at her curiously due to the familiar way she talked about the redheaded transfer student. "I've had this dish numerous times whenever I would visit him in his hometown, and I have to admit this time around it tastes far superior compared to those times." She smiled a bit as she gazed upon the redheaded boy. "Then again it has been about three years since the last time I saw him."

"W-Wait," Yūki stuttered out as she raised a shaky finger at the blonde girl. "Are you the girl he was talking about during his speech?"

"Indeed I am," the blonde answered helpfully. She smiled at the frowning redhead sitting across from her, arms crossed over his chest disapprovingly, as he had a sinking feeling that she was revealing too much of their relationship as well as his personal history. Erina probably knew that he would hate her a little for this, but this needed to be done. She could not accept the fact that her friend was not receiving the recognition he was supposed be lauded.

"I mean, why wouldn't I? He is the son of Saiba Jōchirō after all," she smirked haughtily at her best friend. "Or as he was known in the cooking world, Asura."

Everyone save for Hisako, Erina and Sōma froze in shock as the heard the nickname for the former Second Seat. He was a man said to have rivaled Dōjima Gin in cooking skill. To think that he had a child no less was stunning, since most of the former Elite Ten went on to more lucrative business routes that left no time for family at all. Every single one of them was stunned that the son of such a legendary chef passed him off as nothing more than a chef for the common crowd, shunning his pedigree.

"That was supposed to be a secret Erina," the redhead ground out through gritted teeth, an even glare leveled on the haughty blonde. Though he was mad that his cover was blown somewhat, he knew that she was trying to get him to see that he was more than just some chef at a Special-of-the-Day restaurant. Still, he could have gone with not being gawked at.

"Keep this a secret you guys," Sōma told those awake seriously, stern gaze bearing down upon all of them. Erina herself seemed nonplussed when his eyes found her own, but on the inside she was crying a little at the betrayed look she found those golden eyes of his. "I wanted to make a name for myself without having to resort to throwing the weight of my lineage around."

Everyone winced when they felt the atmosphere turn tense, realizing that those words were more meant for the blonde than anyone else. Satoshi himself had a neutral look on his face as he realized that this was probably the reason behind Erina's somewhat erratic behavior during some Elite Ten meetings prior to the beginning of the year.

'She must be in conflict about who she is as a person and who Sōma-kun is as well,' the hazel haired young man thought as he say Erina's shoulders begin to tremble. 'Everyone had forced perfection upon her that it came to a head when a prison of sorts formed around her, practically binding who she could be. This must be why she seemed so cold towards other and warm to Sōma-kun: he's more than likely the only person to treat her like a normal girl.'

He shook his head sadly as he watched the redheaded boy take Erina by the hand and pull her up so that she could stand before leading her out of the room. 'And that's the crux of it. He wants to be seen for who he is as a person, not whose son he is. Erina at the same time wants her friend and realizing the only way she could possibly have him back is by having him accept his pedigree so that others won't scrutinize and hate their friendship.'

Satoshi then saw that Hisako was fidgeting with her fingers while looking down at her lap, almost as if she were feeling guilty about something.

"Is something wrong Hisako-kun?" the Seventh Seat asked the pinkette.

"I'm just realizing how painful it must be for Erina-sama," Hisako said as her shoulders shook. "All of us made her into something perfect, forgetting about the fact that she was a person all the while." The pinkette then covered her face as she began sobbing, hating herself for helping along the process. "She's been alone all this time because of us, hoping that her childhood friend would reunite with her after so long."

The other girls were also crying as well now, realizing that the entire relationship that Erina and Sōma had was like that of star-crossed lovers, torn apart by social status and the like. Shun's sagged as well, realizing that the world was a cruel place for people closely tied together. The hazel haired young man wore a blank expression on his face, mulling over the explanation they were all given.

"That's why he's aiming for the top," Satoshi said aloud, causing the others to turn his way and look at him curiously. "By playing the part of a commoner, if he can beat Erina-kun at a Shokugeki when they're both Third Year students, no one be able to question his relationship with Erina-kun from then on."

"How so?" Ryōko asked as she swiped at a few stray tears on her face.

"It would effectively break the 'perfect' image everyone had forced upon Erina-sama," the pinkette muttered, sniffling a little. "That would then allow Erina-sama to live from then on of her own free will, without having to be conscious of society's opinions."

"I can see why he doesn't want to throw around his name then." Once more, everyone's attention was on the only Second Year in the Polar Star Dormitories. "Sōma-kun is thinking more about of Erina-kun and giving her a free life, rather than one ruled by names or prestige. If he uses his name to explain away his relationship with Erina-kun, then they'd come under more scrutiny by everyone. He doesn't want that in the slightest."

"Yukihira-san discussed this with Erina-sama after his speech during the Opening Ceremony." Hisako looked up at the ceiling, gazing past it into heaven. "He's disgusted with what everyone did to Erina-sama, binding her in a prison of expectations and standards she must always meet." The girl then put her face in her hands and shouted, "I'm so sorry Erina!" as she began bawling once more, making Yūki and Ryōko spring into action so as to soothe the crying girl.

'It's not the beginning of an epic I felt,' Satoshi thought as he gazed at the ceiling blankly. 'What I felt was the first sparks of a revolution, a legend. I now wish you more than anything luck Sōma-kun, you'll need it if you want to free the girl you love.' He felt within his own gut that the two loved one another, but had not come to realize it yet. They would as time went by, he was sure of it. Why else would someone go to the lengths of challenging an entire school and its standards as a commoner just to free a friend despite the fact he could be her friend now due to his lineage?

'If I'm wrong, I'll eat my apron.'

* * *

Out on the balcony of the Polar Star Dormitory, Erina had her lips pressed against Sōma's own in a passionate kiss under the stars. She had no other way to convey her feelings toward her best friend, as she felt that her voice would fail her if she tried to reason with Sōma. Her reasons as well sounded petty and childish, more than likely infuriating the redhead because of the pedigree he refused to even acknowledge that was written in his blood.

"I like you!" the blonde told him as she hugged him tightly. "Please understand that you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't let you go again; I won't let you go again." She began to tremble, snapping her eyes shut to stop the oncoming tears and failing to do so. "I just want you to be with me again. I don't care if you hate your lineage; if it's the only way you can be by my side, then I'll gladly shout it for the whole school to hear."

"Then you and I would never be free." His words had her head snapping up quickly to look into the sad eyes of Sōma. "We'd be the Spawn of Asura and God's Tongue. We wouldn't be Erina and Souma at all." He then placed a loving and tender kiss upon her lips. The redhead smiled a little at the glassy-eyed look on her face when he pulled back.

"You're so close," Erina murmured quietly, tightly hugging the boy. "Why must we wait another three years before we can be truly together?"

"It may be another three years, but if I succeed, then we'd have our entire lives together just to ourselves," he told her as he looked up into the night skies, wishing they too were like stars and away from everyone else that did not matter.

"What if I wanted to start a family the moment you win?" Sōma took a double take at her words. He looked down at the girl and saw that she had a mischievous grin on her face. The redhead laughed heartily before he kissed the girl on the cheek and rubbed his cheek against her own a moment later.

In his own mind, Sōma wondered if his friend had been serious about that. He knew that his feelings for had rapidly grown for the girl, but questioned if they were that serious. When he shared a passionate kiss with her a second later to confirm if his feelings for her were serious, Sōma realized that he did not want to give her up to anyone else.

Erina had wondered whether or not she was dreaming once more when they parted lips for the third time tonight within a short period of time. Dream or no dream, the blonde realized that she wanted to feel this way with him for the rest of her life. Another three years of waiting would not kill her, so long as she could kiss her friend every now and again.

"Sōma-kun," the blonde murmured as she stared deeply into his eyes. "May you be mine?"

"So long as I'm yours alone and you are mine alone," he replied his lips once more finding her own. The two shared their fourth kiss, and third passionate kiss, under the shining moon with the stars as the only witnesses to their union.

Neither of them wanted to think about their future if Sōma lost or his lineage was revealed for all to know. Freedom is, after all, never free.

* * *

A little rushed on the romance? Maybe a little. But this is their private romance that only they know of, with Satoshi having an inkling to. You will see how radically different it will be between the two of them out in the eyes of the public. And of course everyone knows how private affairs go...

Although in the case of Beckett and Castle, everyone seemed pretty chill with it. Huh...

Anyway, review! And if you haven't review a previous chapter, leave a review of each seperate chapter. It helps keep the size of the reviews down for me so I don't have to stare at walls of text all the time. My eyesight is bad as is.


	9. Chapter 9 Love, Friendship and Hate

第九章

愛、友情と憎しみ

Chapter 9

Love, Friendship and Hate

* * *

"So this is your new room, ne, Sōma-kun?" Erina asked her boyfriend while sitting on the edge of his bed, her legs swinging over the side. She turned her head when she heard the click of the lock on the door and looked at him curiously. "Sōma-kun?"

"I just don't want anyone disturbing us," he told her, eyes on the ground before him. The young man looked up at her and smiled, causing his girlfriend to return his smile with one of her own accompanied by a bashful blush.

"So what is it that Sōma-kun wants to do with me that he'd go so far to lock his bedroom door?" she asked the redhead coyly. Her eyes held an eager gleam in them as they beheld the young man making his way toward her. A shiver went down her spine when his hands grasped both of her shoulders. Staring intently into his eyes, she felt another shiver run throughout her body at the fiery and passionate look within them.

"I think you know what it is I want to do," he murmured as he craned his body so that the two of them only had five centimeters between their faces. Their warm breath mingled between the two of them, increasing the ambient temperature just a few degrees. Those few degrees however made the difference, as both of them felt their faces heating up even further. Both could even feel the other's heartbeat in their ears and chest as if it were their own.

No, as if their hearts were one.

"I don't have the faintest idea Sōma-kun," the blonde whispered quietly, her tongue darting out for a moment to wet her suddenly dry lips. She watched her boyfriend's reaction, his eyes darting to her lips and then back to her eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed, and felt her own mouth go dry as a result.

"The little girl I remembered from that summer long ago was so kind and friendly to me," he whispered so faintly that had it not been for how close the two of them were Erina would not have heard him. "To think that she had become so beautiful in such a short time is mind boggling." His lips then found her own once more in a slow and tender kiss that would have caused the blonde to collapse had she not been sitting down.

"She may be Nakiri Erina, the Tenth Seat of Tōtsuki and God's Tongue, to everyone else…" The smoldering and passionate look in his eyes reminded the blonde girl why it was she considered him so special compared to everyone else, despite the fact there could be stronger chefs out there.

"But to me she is just Erina, the girl I used to have fun with and cook for." A kiss to her left cheek had her face flushing a nice shade of pink.

"I want to spoil her with my delicious food because it makes me so happy to hear her praise me," he chuckled as he pushed his girlfriend onto the bed. The blonde giggled in reply to his rather egotistical comment and called him out on it.

"Wouldn't any boyfriend be happy to be praised by his girlfriend anyway?" His cheeky reply and grin had her giggling once more. Placing a kiss upon his nose, she smiled at his frowning face and squirmed out from under him. Repositioning herself so that she would lying the right way on the bed, she beckoned the redhead toward her with a single curled finger.

"Sōma-kun has also grown." She then tugged on the cloth she gave him so long ago, causing him to fall on her. His arms immediately flew out to brace his descent so that he would not cause his falling body to hit the beautiful girl below him. The redhead swallowed hard and felt his heart begin to beat a little faster when he felt his knee slide just a little too close to the hem of her skirt.

A single eyebrow rose on Sōma's forehead as he beheld her smiling face. When he felt a tugging feeling near his waist, the boy looked down to see that his girlfriend's hand were struggling in vain to pull his black Restaurant Yukihira shit off by the lower hem. Chuckling a little, he pulled his upper body upward and pulled the shirt off of himself, careful not to pull his scarf off as well.

"You really have become manlier," the blonde murmured as her hand darted forward.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed when Erina tugged on the cloth around his neck, pulling him down to the bed once more.

Rather than look however, Erina opted to explore his youthful body with her hands. Starting at his shoulders, her hands rubbed over the muscles, reveling in the fact that she could feel them tense under her fingers, contracting and expanding as if to show her their power. From there her hands found their way to his back and felt the muscles there as well.

"T-That tickles y'know," he stuttered out when he felt her hands come into contact with his spine. Feeling empowered by the strained look on Sōma's face, her two hands then met in the middle, right over his spine and began to run up and down his vertebrae, allowing her to feel the tremors throughout his body and those running down his spine.

Realizing that the redhead may lose any semblance of control, Erina's hands soon made their way to the front of his body, starting with his chest. With her one hand on each of his pectoral muscles, the blonde began to rub his chest in circular motion. She felt each of the chest muscles contract and expand as well, displaying their might to her as well. Still feeling a little cheeky from earlier, the blonde then moved her hands to his nipples.

The blonde knew she had gone too far when she heard Sōma growl low in the back of his throat before once more locking lips with her, this time in a more rough and animalistic way, what with his tongue dominating her own. With her mind in a haze, she had not even realized her own coat and blouse were off until her boyfriend pulled back to stare at her white lacy bra.

"D-Don't stare so much! You'll embarrass me Sōma-kun!" she exclaimed as she covered her face with her hands, blush covering her face from ear to ear. At the same time a blush covered Sōma's own face mirroring her own as he finally understood that Erina had become a woman.

"So beautiful," he told her in a whispered voice as his hands made their way to her sides. The redhead watched the young woman's face intently as he ran his hands up and down the sides of her body, noting each of her facial expressions and remembering every movement he did to cause them.

"C-Can I touch them? Y-Your b-breasts?" Erina's eyes widened in shock at his request. Momentarily forgetting her embarrassment, she stared into his pleading golden eyes to see that they were darting between her own eyes and her clothed covered chest.

"I-I'm too embarrassed. I'd die from you looking at me so intently," she stuttered as she covered her lower face.

"What if I blindfolded myself?" the redhead asked her seriously as he pulled the cloth from around his neck and held it out to her in his hand.

Erina looked at the cloth in his hand and then back at her boyfriend's face, then back at the cloth once more. Though she was considering telling the young man no, she could not find it in herself to refuse his request since she herself had toyed with his chest.

A quick nod from the blonde and the eager, grinning young man had the cloth soon wrapped around his head, covering his eyes. Since one of his senses was handicapped, that meant his others heightened slightly due to need to cover for the weakness. As such he heard the rustling of fabric and heard a distinctive clicking sound, indicating that Erina had unhooked her bra. The young man then heard the sound of the piece of fabric impacting the floor.

"G-Go ahead. Y-You can touch me now S-Sōma-kun," he heard his girlfriend stutter out. Grinning like he had just won a prize draw to a _ryokan_ , the redhead's hands once more found their way to up from her sides to her chest. When his hands made contact with her breasts, he heard her moan quietly at the sensation of having something warm cover them most likely. His own hands as well felt warmer than usual as well, making him wonder if he was going to scald his hands by touching her breasts.

Starting from the bottom of her breasts, he felt up and down the shape of them, marveling at their firmness as well as their bounciness. Squeezing his hand experimentally, he was amazed at how far his hands sunk into them and was reminded of the marshmallows. He swallowed hard once more as he did so and took in Erina's beautiful moans that were in reaction to him squeezing her breasts.

"D-Don't squeeze too hard," she told him breathlessly.

"S-Sorry," the redhead replied in a quiet voice.

His hands then resumed their circular massage, though this time he moved them over the entirety of her breasts. Whenever his the palms of his hands would run over her nipples, the redhead could positively feel the young woman shudder beneath him in pleasure due to her erotic moans. Wanting revenge for the earlier teasing, his fingers found their way to her nipples.

"S-Sōma-kun?" Her question soon turned into a strangled moan as she felt his fingers begin to run circles around her nipples, stopping every now and again to tease them with a twist. "D-Don't do that!" she moaned in pleasure.

"How can I stop when you moan in such an erotic way Erina?" he asked her rhetorically as his hands alternated between playing with her breasts and teasing her nipples. After a minute or maybe five, he really could not tell since he was that focused, the redhead became quite emboldened by his girlfriend's pleasured moans and switched one of his hands with his mouth.

"A-Ah!" the blonde cried out as something hot and wet clamped over her nipple. Looking down, she could see the top of her lover's head and hear the sucking sounds he was making as his mouth encircled her the areola of her breast. "S-Sōma -Ah!- kun! D-Don't suck on –Ah!- them!" Erina told the young man, trying her best to scold him, but failing miserably due to the moans escaping her mouth.

As usual, Sōma was a person who ignored most people's comments, preferring to do what he wanted to do instead. This moment in time was no exception, as the redhead pointedly ignored his girlfriend's words since she really was not trying to stop him at all. Sure she was probably in ecstasy right now, or close as it could get, but if she so wanted him to stop, he would.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked as he pulled away a little, stopping his current ministrations on her chest. Had the cloth not been tied around his head covering his eyes, Erina was quite certain she would have melted under those soulful golden eyes of his. Lucky for her, he was blindfolded.

"I-It's not that," she murmured quietly, sucking a bit of her lower lip between her teeth and nibbling at it a little to focus on that, rather than the topless young man atop her who was previously massaging her chest and doing a wonderful job of it. "I-I'm scared is all."

"Scared of what?" the redhead asked her quietly.

"I don't want us to go too far, too fast." She could see that her lover had paused to consider her words, as his face had a look of befuddlement upon it.

"I just want to show you how much I've missed you is all." The sweet and tender kiss he placed on her breast, right above her heart, had the blonde's heart go aflutter due to his sentiment, bringing a smile to her face. However, that was not enough to distract her.

"And do you think I don't want to show _you_ how much _I_ have missed you?" she asked him before placing both of her hands on the sides of his face and pulling him into a tender and loving kiss that involved more than just a little bit of tongue. Just to tease him, she rubbed her knee against that spot between his legs and felt a rather decent sized bulge beneath his slacks.

"Don't do that woman," he ground out, making it come out as a growl deep in the back of his throat, as he was doing his best to control himself. "I can hardly control myself as is with your," he swallowed, "breasts before me."

"And that's why I don't want to rush it Sōma-kun," she sighed as she hugged the boy to herself, their bare chests pressing against each other. "I want our first time to be something magical where we both feel that we don't have to restrain ourselves. I want it to be something we do as if it were natural between us." Feeling unashamed, as she had her chest pressed against her boyfriend's own, the young woman pulled off the cloth and stared deeply into his golden yes.

"Do you get what I'm saying?" the blonde asked Sōma with a hint of trepidation in her voice.

"Yeah," he whispered as he drew his face closer to hers. "Yeah, I get what you're talking about." The kiss the two shared was slow, tender and filled with love alongside understanding and respect. "Sorry," the young man told her with a cheesy grin. "I was just getting too excited."

"I could tell," Erina grinned in return, before rubbing that spot once more with her knee. A very hungry and animalistic kiss was soon shared between the two of them that had the pair breathless, leaving their chests heaving against each other.

"Do you want that control to fly out the window Erina?" Sōma once more growled in frustration.

"Sorry," she whispered as pecked him on the cheek. "C'mon, let's go to sleep. It's getting late." If she was to trust her internal clock, it was more than likely around one in the morning.

"Like this?" the redhead asked with a raised brow, referring to their state of half-dress and half-undress.

"If you're that embarrassed…" she trailed off, looking over to where her bra lay on the floor.

"N-No," the chef answered just a little too fast. "I'm fine if you are."

"Lights?" Erina commanded more than asked. An embarrassed "Right" and a few moments later, the two of them were now in the dark lying on the bed.

"So, uh, how do want to do this?" the young man asked anxiously, curious as to how the two of them would share the bed. His answer was the blonde pulling him to herself.

"Wrap your arms around me."

"Okay?" Doing as he was asked, Sōma wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and felt their chests squish against each other. Feeling junior become aroused due to the contact, the redhead could tell that he was blushing hard enough for his cheeks to glow in the dark. He was quite surprised however when he felt Erina move herself down a little so that her head was pressed against his chest, right above where his heart was.

"Erina?"

"Be quiet," the blonde told him firmly. "I want to hear your heart."

Not really understanding the situation, the redhead just lay there with his girlfriend's ear pressed against his chest. After a while, he felt his body begin to relax, releasing all the previous tension in his body. He then realized that the blonde was no longer awake, as her rising and lowering chest was a sign that her breath was coming at regular deep intervals.

Sōma himself soon felt sleep coming unto him as he listened to the quiet even breaths of his girlfriend. Just before his eyes closed, he thought he heard Erina whisper 'Love you'.

* * *

Movement was what woke Yukihira Sōma up more than eight hours later. Blinking his eyes blearily, he could see that his girlfriend was wide awake due to the fact she was on her knees on the bed stretching her body, causing her breasts to be more pronounced.

"Perv." The blonde's teasing comment caused the redhead to divert his eyes away from her chest and to her grinning face. He then averted his eyes as if scolded, a faint blush on his face. A moment later, her felt his girlfriend's bare chest pressed against his back and knew that his blush had grown even more.

"Good morning Sōma-kun," the young woman whispered into his ear before placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Y-Yeah," Sōma stuttered in an embarrassed tone. "G-Good morning." Hoping to keep his mind and something else off of the blonde, he instead pulled out his phone from his pocket to check if any new messages had come through.

"Shit!" The curse that flew from the blonde's mouth had the young man jumping in both surprise and fright. Before he could even ask what was wrong Erina had already kissed him on the cheek, saying, "I'll see you later!" She then proceeded to redress herself in a frantically fast fashion before bolting out of his room.

About a minute later, the ringtone he had set for Erina's e-mails went off. Reminding himself to change it from _Tabidatsu Kimi e_ to something else more upbeat, the redhead opened the message sent to him while idly wondering where on Earth she kept her cellphone since she had a skirt.

 _Subject: Sorry!_

 _RE: I'm sorry I yelled like that. _ I had a Shokugeki scheduled at 11 today and I didn't realize I long I had slept in. At least I got to wake up beside you! ^_^ Anyway, I'll see you later today, since you still need to make my Boeuf Bourguignon!_

Remembering that it took the three of them about two hours to make it to the Polar Star Dorms starting from the beginning of the trail, the redhead realized why Erina rushed out in such a flurry since it was about ten after nine. Since it would be a far run, she would more than likely have worked up a sweat.

He had to stop the nosebleed that would have occurred since his mind had then conjured up images of a sweaty and breathless Erina complete with a see through white blouse. Looking down, the redhead sighed at the state of his little buddy and realized he would have to go with a cold shower instead of his customary hot shower.

"Gods, please give me the restraint of a shōnen hero when it concerns his love interest," Sōma prayed aloud, holding his two clapped hands above his head.

* * *

"I'm so glad Isshiki-senpai loaned us his moped," Erina told her friend once they had made it back to her apartment back on Tōtsuki's main campus. Shaking her head to get rid of thoughts of her running the distance, she disrobed herself and discarded her articles of clothing into a laundry basket before looking over her should at her quiet friend who was staring past the wall.

"Huh?" the other young man asked as she shook herself from her revelry. Listening to the question posed to her once more, Hisako shrugged her shoulder before looking away. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?" Erina asked the pinkette once she found her chef's uniform. "Wanna talk about it?" She then proceed over to her dresser to pull out a new bra and pair of panties which she then slipped on with care. Turning around to talk to the pinkette, the blonde was surprised when she was embraced by the girl whose shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm so sorry Erina-chan." The familiar way Hisako addressed her reminded Erina of when they had a friendship rather than a mistress and secretary relationship.

"What's wrong Hisako-chan?"

"I've been a terrible friend to you," the young woman whispered quietly. "I hadn't realized how lonely you were until Yukihira-san passed the Transfer Exam." Wondering where this was going, Erina stayed silent and would ask the questions that were bugging her later.

"Before, I could boast that I knew you the most since I was the closest to you besides your cousin." She shook her head and rested her chin on the blonde's shoulder. "Now that Yukihira-san is here, I can't say that. I've never seen so these many sides to you. And I realized why: I had treated you the same way as everyone else had treated you. I only treated you like you were my mistress, rather than the only person I could really call friend." Erina felt herself become depressed, remembering that she had pushed Hisako away as a result of how the pinkette had initially viewed their relationship, rather than seeing it as a chance to be friends, those few years ago.

"I'm at fault too Hisako-chan," the blonde whispered back as she hugged her friend as well. "I should have pushed for us to be friends harder." Her hold on the pinkette tightened a little as she felt her eyes go a little misty. "I didn't realize how much it hurt you just to be with me."

"You could never hurt me Erina-chan," Hisako whispered to her friend as she began to cry openly with no care. She was soon joined by the blonde who cried pitiably, letting loose the loneliness she too had felt for all those years without the companionship of her first friend. As the two girls stood there and cried their eyes and hearts out, they both felt that a giant weight that concerned the other had been lifted from their hearts and minds.

"I'm sorry Erina-sama," the pinkette stammered as she stepped back and got onto her knees and bowed low to the ground. "I-I was out of line. Please forgive."

"Hisako, don't do that," Erina chided her friend as she bent down and lifted her friend's head up. Pressing her forehead to the other young woman's own, she smiled and received one in kind. "We're friends. Friends are equals. Neither of us are meant to bow to the other. We're supposed to understand each other and have a mutual relationship."

"You're right," her friend sighed as she accepted the blonde's words.

"When am I not?" The pinkette shook her head slightly at the other young woman's words. She laughed a little at the pout and glare combination sent her way as a result. "Hey."

"Sorry Erina-sama. Ow! What was that for?" Hisako asked as she rubbed her forehead where the blonde had flicked her.

"Friends remember?" she reminded her friend. "It's just Erina, okay?"

"Of course," the young woman giggled as she pulled herself and her friend to their feet. "Well we need to get you dressed, you have a Shokugeki to win."

* * *

Once it was eleven in the afternoon the Shokugeki between the Tenth Seat of Tōtsuki and the Chanko Nabe Research Society was under way. Despite the fact she could have finished her dish within twenty minutes, Erina took her time to create the dish, putting as much of her own being into the food so that it would hold that same warmth that was inherent in Sōma's own. Without a hint of doubt in her from her 'fans', Hisako or herself, the blonde was able to perform a complete shutout, taking all three votes for herself.

"You may proceed," she talked into her cellphone once she was given the win. Though many expected to see carnage once they saw the construction crews ready to knock down the Chan RS building, the entirety of the Shokugeki Arena was surprised when movers came onto the scene and began to rapidly strip the building of its effects.

"W-What's going on?" Kiyoshi murmured in complete disbelief as he watched the moving crew strip the Chan RS building of its all of its effects. "I-I thought…"

"Let it be known that I am not without mercy," Erina said aloud for all of the arena to hear.

"B-But our sanctuary!" the sumo like man cried out.

"It will be dismantled instead of torn down," the blonde explained with a superior smirk. "You'll be able to rebuild the entire thing if you can find a new plot of land to build it upon."

"Our society's budget! What about that, you stole it from us!" the Second-Year accused the younger girl.

"I did not. I simply allocated it to other societies that needed the funding." She leveled a glare on the larger man, scaring him into submission with the cold fury behind her eyes. "Your society has wasted the resources this school has given you. It is well within my rights to cleanse you from out fine institute." Her glare turned into a haughty look that infuriated the Chan RS members and president. "But I am not without mercy as I said before.

"Your budget will be restored so long as you produce results with your research. I will be supervising of course." She sighed internally when she heard the cries of outrage from the members of the Chan RS.

"We will never bow to the likes of you, Nakiri Erina!" Kiyoshi spat, disgusted that he would have to submit to such an egotistical person.

"You can either walk away with your pride wounded, or you can keep your pride and be destroyed."

The unanimous reply she heard from all members of the Chanko Nabe Research Society had Erina sighing sadly. She had rationalized that Sōma was a special case in the world, accepting defeat easily and using it to improve himself. Then again, she was quite sure her boyfriend did not know the word fear at all.

"Very well then." She then called up the contractors once more. "Tear it all down. Leave nothing of the Chan RS behind. Burn all of the effects." She glared at the crowd opposite to her side when she heard the indignant shouts caused by her sharp words. "You forfeited the entirety of Chan RS, along with its possessions to me. You declined my most gracious offering with utmost disdain. Every single one of you is quite lucky to still be allowed to attend Tōtsuki," she shouted, pointing at all the Chan RS members.

With one final glare at the entirety of the crowd opposing her, the blonde made her way off stage, passing all the sycophants that were kissing up to her and pointedly ignoring them. Once she made it to the competitors' corner, she heaved a relieved sigh, happy to put that match behind her.

"Ya know, I don't remember any of the rumors about you saying you were a merciful person." Erina just about jumped in fright when she heard the voice right behind her. The blonde however knew that voice, and looked over her shoulder to see her smirking boyfriend.

"I thought you weren't one to listen to rumors Sōma-kun," the girl replied as she walked toward her boyfriend.

"I'm not," he replied once he pulled back from hugging his blonde girlfriend. "By the way, congratulations on winning your Shokugeki."

"You're not mad?" she asked, worried she may have pushed one of his buttons, specifically the one concerning food of the masses.

"Nah, not really," Sōma admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, if I were in their position, I would have accepted the offer. I mean, it's not every day you get someone of your prestige to come down to a common place."

"You sounded a little self-deprecating there for a moment Sōma-kun," Erina said as she poked her boyfriend's chest. She smiled a little though. "And I do like common places; Restaurant Yukihira is a great little place that I love to visit," she admitted to her boyfriend, making him remember that she could enjoy food of the masses. "And I thought you hated my prestige."

"I don't care about your prestige," he clarified as he kissed the tip of her nose. "I know the real you and just want the real you. I'm just speaking from their point of view, is what I'm telling you."

"Would you really have bowed to me like that?" she asked her boyfriend seriously.

"Only if you had beaten me at my best with your best. Otherwise, no." He kissed her thoroughly when she opened her mouth to retort. "We're supposed to be equals. No one's bowing to anyone in this relationship, got it?"

"Yeah, got it," Erina mumbled against his lips before once more kissing.

"Oh hey Hishoko!" Sōma greeted the pinkette the moment he caught sight of her over his girlfriend's shoulder. Erina whirled around so that she was standing beside her boyfriend, rather than in his arms, embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

"My name is Arato Hisako. Hisako, Yukihira-san!" the girl shouted angrily, a glare pinned upon the young man. He shrugged it off easily enough as he always did with angry glares.

"Sōma."

"Eh?"

"Call me Sōma, Hishoko," he told her plainly, ignoring her glare once more. "You're Erina's friend and she's my girlfriend. By extension, that means you're my friend as well." Hisako froze at the friend title being placed upon her by the redhead.

"Uh," the pinkette stammered out, wondering why her mind was failing to provide her with coherent sentences.

"So Erina and I are going to stop by Tadokoro's Research Society to try out one of their new dishes," Sōma told the two girls, ignoring the pinkette's blushing face. "Wanna come?"

"W-Wait, when did I agree to this Sōma-kun?!" the blonde asked her boyfriend as she pulled away from his side.

"So you don't want to go?" he asked her dumbly with a tilt of his head.

"I never said I wasn't going to join you!" she stammered out.

"Then let's go!" Sōma shouted aloud as he grabbed the blushing pinkette by the shoulders and pulled her along with his girlfriend to the Local Cuisine Research Society.

* * *

Before laying down in bed, Sōma checked his e-mails on his phone to see if anything new had come. Though he expected Erina to send him an e-mail, he did not expect Hisako to have sent him one as well, and two no less. Even if he was curious as to why the pinkette wrote him an e-mail, he opened Erina's first anyway, since she was his girlfriend.

 _Subject: Megumi-chan_

 _RE: Oh my god! Megumi is so cute when she isn't stuttering and nervous. And her cooking is so warm, almost as warm as yours Sōma-kun._ o _But yours is still the best! Anyway, you better look out for her. I don't want anyone poaching that girl before I can._ XD

Laughing a little to himself after reading his girlfriend's text, he then opened Hisako's first text to him.

 _Subject: Milady_

 _RE: Sōma-san, I'd like it if you did not leave visible marks of your encounters with Erina-sama on her body. Though she explained the situation to me later, I wish the two of you would be less amorous during your future encounters. You don't have to listen to me, but please be considerate of Milady._

Blushing a little as he realized her had left a few hickeys on Erina's body, the redhead considered the pinkette's e-mail to him. He would more than likely have to be careful whenever something like that morning happened again. Curious as to what her last message to him was, the boy opened the e-mail.

 _Subject: Friends_

 _RE: Outside of Erina, I actually have no real friends. To hear that you consider me as a friend and Erina's friend rather than her aide as well made me, ummm, happy. That doesn't mean you can act so familiar with me however! And don't you dare mess up my name again!_

'Why'd she stammer in a text?' Sōma wondered as he read over the e-mail once more. Not really getting it at all, he shrugged his shoulders before putting the cellphone away and turning in for the night.

* * *

AN: Yes I was lazy since I used the last few hundred words of my previous Chapter 9. Nothing was wrong with them, okay? Anyway, this was difficult to write as I had to take breaks to deal with, ahem, stress. Yeah. This is what happens when I have to write this stuff. Er, forget I said anything.

Moving on, do you know how hard it was not to irmage Erina and Hisako's scene as a yuri? Dear One, a part of me was trying to make it one. Jeez. Anyway, please review this new chapter and give my your opinion of it. Not only that, but it's diffcult for me to come up with a heart-to-heart between girls, since I'm a guy with no real romantic relationship to speak of.

Also Miya, stop trying to suck me dry! I can only pump out so much! Wow, that sounded so much dirtier than I thought it would be. (-/-)


	10. Chapter 10 Pride, Trust and Honor

第十章

誇り、信頼と名誉

Chapter 10

Pride, Trust and Honor

* * *

"Good morning Sōma-kun!" The voice of Isshiki Satoshi broke the young man from his rather pleasant dreams involving giant marshmallows and warm honey. Swiping at the drool that had dribbled a little down to his chin, the redhead looked at the speaking tube in the corner of his room with a raised brow.

"What is it Satoshi-senpai?" Sōma asked with a yawn, rubbing his tired eyes.

"Ah! You're up. I'd like your help out in the garden out back," the hazel haired youth's voice spoke through the metallic object. Remembering that there was a massive garden to the side of the Polar Star Dormitories, the redhead wondered if the older student was talking about that. "Once you're up and dressed, could you come and assist me?"

Groping for his cellphone on the stand near his bed, the redhead blinked blearily back at the numbers that greeted him. He groaned a little on the inside as he realized he was woken at the crack of dawn. Looking out his window, he could tell it was that early since the light coming through was red splashed with orange and yellow.

"Satoshi-senpai, I've only been asleep for," he paused to yawn deeply, "for six hours." The time of six 'o' nine blinked back at him in its green colors. "I'm still sleepy." Turning over on his side, the redhead pulled the covers closer and wrapped himself in a cocoon of its warmth. "Could you ask someone else?"

"Don't be like that," the hazel haired young man whispered creepily, his head popping up from behind a ceiling tile. Sōma's cellphone impacted his face a second later, causing the Second Year to fly back and the small device to land back in the redhead's open palm.

"Holy shit dude!" the chef cried out as he gripped at his chest, feeling as if it were about to explode from there. "Don't do that!" Shrugging to himself, realizing that the older student could recover to a simple item smacking him in the face, Sōma went about preparing to help Satoshi out in the garden out back.

* * *

After helping out on the Polar Star Farms, or Isshiki Farms, Sōma had decided to spend the rest of his free Saturday from eleven onward loitering around on the main campus. As he dragged Megumi along to his destination, the subject of Research Societies popped up. Interested in what they were exactly, since his old man had never joined one himself or even spoke of one, the redhead egged his fellow classmate for information on the Research Societies.

"They're like clubs in normal high schools, except these our Research Societies focus on the development of certain dishes or an area's cuisine," Megumi explained to the pushy redhead. Though she did not like being pulled around like a ragdoll, she was somewhat fine with it since Sōma meant no harm… probably. "I'm part of the Local Cuisine RS."

"Ah," he replied, understanding why the RS he saw trounced yesterday had a Sumo theme to its building and its own members, since Chanko Nabe was food meant to help Sumo Wrestlers during their weight-gain diets. Too bad that RS was completely destroyed yesterday, it would have been a good place to start on his quest to gather more recipes for Restaurant Yukihira. Shrugging lightly, he then switched gears and talked about something else to pass the long walk back to Tōtsuki.

Once they made it to the main campus of Tōtsuki, the blunette directed her fellow classmate to where the academy's Research Societies posted flyers to attract potential members. Though there was a rather large amount of students crowding the boards, the moment Sōma entered their collective peripheral the crowd dispersed in numerous directions. Not really making anything of it, the redhead stepped closer to the board to get a better look.

"'Sushi Research Society'," Sōma read aloud, mimicking the tone of the flyer, though rather dully. His eyes scanned over the pictures of different types of sushi decorating the sides of the flyers, idly naming each of them. "'Come join the even expanding industry that is sushi! We have subdivisions of our society that include Inarizushi, Makizushi, Narezushi and more!'" He shrugged a little as he held his chin in his hand. "Sounds good and all, but I don't think it's for me. Besides, I don't think I'm much of a sushi chef"

"How about this one Sōma-kun?" the girl asked him, pointing at a smaller flyer that was off to the side at the board on the end. When he made his way over there, the redhead leaned in a little closer to inspect the piece of paper.

"Donburi Research Society," he mumbled quietly as he read over their tagline. "'Donburi are dishes completed in one bowl! Donburi are made for men who fight! They symbolize all that is manly in the cooking world!' Wow, sounds like whoever made this flyer was really enthusiastic." Grinning a little, he turned to Megumi who felt she was more than likely going to be swept up in her classmate's flow. "Let's go, Tadokoro."

"M-Me too?" was her startled reply. In her mind however, she realized something like this was bound to happen if she were around this crazy guy. Not that she minded, really. It was nice to have such a strong willed friend who could make the best out of any situation that was handed to him, despite how bleak the outcome seemed. She could do without him concocting those strange inedible dishes though.

* * *

When the two of them slid open the door to the Donburi Research Society, they were both in for a shock. The only person in there was a student dressed like a bōsōzoku with a massive pompadour and pencil mustache. But that was not what was shocking; it was the fact that he looked completely whited out, as if he were an anime character. Both rubbed their eyes trying to see if they were both imagining thing but instead a raincloud appeared above the man's head. Shaking their heads rapidly, the two First Years finally were finally rid of the anime related symbolism.

Looking up to see who had come in, the Don RS member chuckled mirthlessly at the two younger students before his eyes trailed back down to the ground. "You guys should leave this forsaken place." The two First Years looked at one another with raised brows, wondering what on Earth was going on. Turning back, they could see that the student was in his own little world. "The Don RS is going to bite the dust in a bit."

"Eh?" Sōma and Megumi muttered in stereo, really wondering what the heck was going on. The two gave each other one more glance before stepping in, sliding the door closed behind them. "So, uh, my names Yukihira Sōma." He then motioned to the blunette beside him, who waved meekly at the student. "And this is Tadokoro Megumi. The two of us are First Year students."

"The name's Konishi Kanichi," he said, poking his chest with a thumb. "Second Year student and Don of the Don RS."

"So, uh, why do you look like someone just killed your kitten?" the redhead asked with absolutely no tact or preamble. Leave it to Yukihira Sōma to be blunt as a Gravity Hammer wielded by a Wookie. The reaction he got out of the older student was absolutely pitiful.

"Laugh all you want Yukihira," the older student grumbled. "I deserve it since I couldn't save the Don RS."

"Well it's like I told Tadokoro," he said, pointing his thumb at the bent down girl. "If you allow yourself to become nervous or depressed, you won't ever succeed. I mean, sure it's scary facing people stronger than you. But that doesn't mean you should give up before the battle even begins."

"Sōma-kun, not everyone has your fearlessness," Megumi reminded her friend as she picked up a book of Donburi recipes. "I mean, not everyone can stand up before their entire year and declare they will be number one."

"I'm sure others can do it," the redhead muttered, blowing a raspberry. "Hmmm? What's that?" he asked as he eyed the book in Megumi's hands.

"Oh! It's a collection of Donburi Recipes." The blunette then handed the book to her friend who then proceeded to flip through the book, eyes alight with excitement as he perused the recipes.

"Hey! These are pretty good," Sōma told the older student over his shoulder. "A ton of mainstream and off-beat bowls are in here, some I've never even heard of." He got to thinking on if he could snag a few of those recipes for Restaurant Yukihira, after putting a Yukihira spin on them of course. "Some are even jazzed up with some brilliant creativity. These are really interesting recipes!

"Why exactly do you have to shut down the Don RS?" Turning back around to talk with the older student, the redhead froze in shock as the Second Year clamped his hands down on his own shoulders, crying as he shouted, "Yukihira!"

"What the fuck?!" Whether it was the guy's close proximity, his new attitude or the fact that the pompadour was rigid in the air that caused Sōma to curse was unknown. The only thing the Yukihira knew was he was freaked the hell out.

After a short spiel on how manly don were and how they exemplified all that was manly along with how Kanichi would not die before creating the penultimate, the zealous Second Year student went on to rant about how he hated Nakiri Erina for merely attending Tōtsuki and how she was targeting Research Societies she did not find up to snuff. Konishi then went on to explain how she went about getting the Research Societies to crumble by getting them into a last-ditch Shokugeki to save their arse.

"Once my Don RS learned that a member of Nakiri Erina's circle was to be our opponent everyone practically everyone tucked tail and ran like cowards." The Second Year student then held his face in his hands pitifully. "I would have run too, but I'm not that much of a coward."

"Yet you're not brave enough to face one of her subordinates," the redhead pointed out bluntly with no reservation whatsoever. He felt kind of bad for the older student when he slumped even further in his chair and bleached out. "So," he began, hoping to change the subject of the conversation since Kanichi's own attitude was getting a little bit on his nerves, "who's your opponent supposed to be?"

When a number of men dressed in construction clothes stepped into the Donburi Research Society clubroom, Sōma realized whoever was leading the merry band was more than likely the opponent of the Shokugeki. The person who the stepped through after the workers was a rather tanned blonde young girl wearing the school's skirt normally. However, the rest of her appearance violated the school's dress code. Her tie was wrapped around her thigh while a sheathed knife was on the other. The most glaring violation however was the fact she had a bikini top styled after the American Flag sticking out of her blouse that was pulled up, exposing her navel and tied just under her bikini top.

Sōma however shrugged mildly, remembering that Satoshi himself had odd way of dressing. Who was he to tell someone else how they dressed then, much less a woman? He did not want to get into that murky area called equal rights, thank you very much.

"Oi, Mito! Who do you think you are! You can't just barge in like this!" the Don of Don RS barked to the girl.

"I'm just doing a survey of the room is all," the blonde answered as she marched toward the Second Year student. "We both know the outcome of this little conflict anyway." She then kicked out her leg and leaned closer to the quivering Don RS President. "It's like Erina-sama said, if you don't have the guts to fight, you don't deserve to cook in the kitchen! But it's a different story if you think you can take me on."

"Damn you Nikumi!" A split second later, a meat cleaver was in the blonde's hand, cleaving Kanichi's pompadour in twain. That had both the Second Year and Megumi shrieking in fright. Sōma however was wondering how on Earth that mass of cleaved hair was still in perfect form despite its premature departure from the source.

"It's Mito Ikumi you moron," she hissed to the older student.

"S-She's his opponent?" the blunette stuttered out.

"Uh, who the hell is she exactly?" Sōma asked aloud, while looking back at Megumi.

"She's Mito Ikumi, a First Year just like us. She was dubbed the Meat Master last year due to her cooking ability with any type of meat." Sōma choked a little in the back of his throat, wondering if anyone ever referred to her nickname as an innuendo since that was such a double meaning name. "She's always received high marks in Tōtsuki, ever since the Junior High Section. In particular, she's never received anything other than an A grade for any dish using meat."

"Ah." Without even realizing why he was doing it, the redhead stepped forward toward arguing duo. It may have had to do with the fact that the blonde girl was boasting on how her high priced meat would trounce any don dish Kanichi made. "Y'know, you're going to give cooking a bad name if you only care about the highest priced ingredients." He then stepped forward and placed his hand on the Second Year student's shoulder and stared into the girl's green eyes.

"Kanichi-senpai, is it alright if I stand in for the Don RS in the Shokugeki?" Sōma's declaration caused both Kanichi and Megumi to double take at the redhead's ballsy move.

Pausing for a moment to regard the redhead before her who had dared to stand in for someone in a Shokugeki, the blonde had a moment of clarity as she recognized who the interloper was. "You're that braggart Transfer Student from the Opening Ceremony, Yukihira Sōma." A smirk soon formed on the girl's lips. "I've been wanting to talk to you ever since then."

"Whoa, are you hitting on me?" Leave it to Yukihira Sōma to throw a monkey wrench into any situation that seemed tense. The blonde colored brilliantly at his remark and stamped her foot in frustration.

"What? No, I'm not hitting on you!" she shouted at him, embarrassed about the fact this upstart could get her that off kilter. The blonde growled as she shook her head, trying to refocus on the real situation at hand. "Anyway, you must really be confident in your own abilities if you're that willing to switch places with someone in a Shokugeki."

"Yep, I really am," he answered with a confident grin. "I'll even fight on your own territory. So how's about we cook a meat dish?" The redhead's grin disappeared and was replaced with a white hot fiery passion in his eyes. "I'll win anyway."

Ikumi's eyes narrowed at the cocky student, wondering if he really was that gutsy to challenge her in her own domain. "Then if I win, will you quit Tōtsuki? We have no need for a cocky bastard such as you."

An excited 'Sure!' was his immediate reply. "I'll accept that, since I don't plan on losing anyway." He met the blonde's irritated glare with a cocky smile of his own. "If I win, you'll join us in the Don RS. Consider it a fair trade for all the members you scared off."

That had all three other students in the Donburi Research Society clubroom gawking at the redhead's declaration, wondering if he had a few screws loose somewhere in his head.

"You've got guts," Ikumi idly remarked, insulting and complimenting the redhead at the same time. Clapping her hands together twice, the blonde told the surveyors that they were leaving for today. "Since you've chosen the theme of the Shokugeki, I'll choose the dish. The main ingredient is 'meat', the dish will be Don." She gave the redhead a superior smirk before heading out, waving over her shoulder offhandedly. 'It'll be in three days. Be prepared to lose, Yukihira Sōma,' was her parting remark to the group of three.

"Yukihira, why'd ya do that?" the Don of Don RS asked once they were alone again.

"Eh," the redhead sighed as he picked up the fallen Donburi Recipe Book, "I kinda got pissed since she was spouting that pricey ingredients were everything. Seeing as I'm a diner brat, I really couldn't let that comment fly." He bent back up and dusted off the dirt that had accumulated on the book. "Besides, this place is too great to go down."

"Yukihira!" Was that thing twitching up again?!

"Ummm, Sōma-kun." Megumi hesitated a little, realizing that she knew the answer to her question anyway. She however decided to ask anyway, hopeful that the redhead had a game plan. "You do have a plan, right?"

"Hmmm, too many right now to decide what I'll do really," Sōma mumbled as he held his chin in his hand, thoughtful expression on his face. "I'm debating on whether to do a Katsudon, Oyakodon, or a Gyūdon." He then smirked at the leader of Don RS. "Tell me, what do you think she'll use for her main ingredient?"

"If I know Mito, she'll more than likely use A5 meat." Kanichi then held his face in his hands. "We're doomed if she does that!"

"No, not really," Sōma replied with a wave of his hand. "If she uses that, then she's not really making a Donburi dish."

"What do you mean Sōma-kun?"

"It's simple: if you focus too much quality into a single ingredient, the synergy of the entire dish does not flow if the quality of the other ingredients is lesser. The rice and the meat will be fighting against each other as a result, rather than combining to make a perfect Donburi." A devious smirk appeared on his face, eyes flashing with mischief.

"It's like you said senpai," he then made a circular motion in the air before him as he stared down the other two students, "Don are completed in one bowl. And I have just the one to do so." The redhead then pulled out a notepad and wrote down the list of ingredients on the paper before handing it to the older student.

"It should be easy to gather these," he muttered with a nod. "I'll get right on it!"

About thirty minutes later after all the ingredients were gathered, the redhead went about making the dish as if it were second nature to himself. It really was second nature to him, since he had made this dish on nearly four years ago for his childhood friend. Once he completed the dish, two bowls, one for Megumi and the other for Kanichi, were served to the other students. When the cloth was once more back around his neck and chest, the redhead asked them to taste it.

"Oh!" the Second Year student exclaimed as he tasted the dish served to him. "T-This is fantastic!" He then scarfed down nearly a quarter of the bowl since it was that good. "T-To think this was made with such simple ingredients!"

"It's like the entire bowl is singing a symphony of flavor," Megumi quietly as she tasted more of the dish served to her by her friend. "The synergy you were talking about Sōma-kun, I can see why it matters." A ringtone soon ruined the ambience of the clubroom, causing the blunette and brunette to deadpan at the redhead. Sōma let loose an embarrassed chuckle as he pulled out his flip phone, the ringtone _My Dearest_ still going on, and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Get your ass down to Grandfather's office now Yukihira Sōma!" came the irate voice of his girlfriend through the speaker of the cellphone.

"R-Right." The receiver then clicked, telling him Erina had hung up on him. Knowing more than likely he had to deal with this, since an angry Nakiri Erina took days to cool down if left alone, the redhead bid farewell to the two other students and beat a hasty exit.

"W-Was that Nakiri Erina I just heard talking on the other end?" the Second Year asked, mouth agape with shock.

'Sōma-kun, you idiot!' Megumi shouted in her head at the redhead as she tried to cover for her troublesome friend.

* * *

"Yo," Sōma greeted Senzaemon with a dull expression on his face, showing no sign of respect for the powerful man. The redhead was standing just in front of the door, not taking a seat for the moment, while the director of Tōtsuki was sitting behind his desk. "How's it hanging gramps?" He pointedly ignored the glare being sent his way by his girlfriend.

"Still the same disrespectful brat you once were, I see," the old man muttered, restraining a sigh, as he squeezed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "And still the same troublesome brat as before. Not even one week in at Tōtsuki and you get yourself into a Shokugeki already."

"Well, Mito-san kinda pushed one of my buttons. The one about pricey ingredients and such." He nodded internally when he heard a frustrated sigh pass through his girlfriend's lips. "Besides, it's about time I show this school I mean business."

"You do realize what will happen once a winner is determined?" the old man asked the redhead standing in his office. "Because of the rumor of Erina passing you has spread around the school like wildfire, it has been deduced that whoever wins my granddaughter will be the ultimate loser in the end."

"That's fine by me, since I plan to win," came Sōma's cavalier reply. He just stared the glaring man down calmly, never flinching, blinking or looking away.

"Do you not care about Erina's reputation?" Senzaemon growled in contempt for the redheaded young man before him. Erina herself was quiet all the while, since she knew that this was the argument that was more than likely to occur once she brought up the issue to her grandfather. Problem was, she wanted to discuss it in private with her boyfriend, not have her grandfather do so.

"I don't," the chef replied with an even stare. "I'm here to tear it down bit by bit until all that is left is the Nakiri Erina I remember from my childhood. I'm not going to let the distance between us grow any greater than it is." Deciding it was now or never, since the older man would probably irate if he was not told about it sooner, the redhead decided to come clean about his relationship with Erina. "I love her too much to let her go again."

He then stared down the hard glare that was directed his way by the Director of Tōtsuki Academy, accepting whatever angry outburst was to come toward him as a result of his confession. The redhead diverted his eyes to his girlfriend to see that she frozen where she sat.

"I never thought that the little brat I met nearly ten years ago would become such a fine young man." The compliment that Senzaemon gave Sōma threw the couple off kilter a little, as they were expecting angry outburst from the older man. "For a long time, I had lamented over the fact that my granddaughter could not live a normal, happy life like others due to her ability. I had actually almost given up hope that she could find anyone who could make her happy.

"Now I see that the person who can do that stands before me."

"Wait. Does that mean?"

"Grandfather, do you really?"

"Yes Erina," the older man addressed his granddaughter. "I approve of your union. He made you happy back then. I hope he can make you just as happy now." He then shot a glare at the boy for good measure. "Right?"

"I'll make sure she's always satisfied," Sōma promised the Director of Tōtsuki Academy.

"You didn't need to tell me that!" the old man grumbled as he rubbed his temple once more in frustration. A paper fan soon impacted the back of his head, courtesy of his blushing granddaughter.

"Old Pervert!"

* * *

Three days had passed by since the meeting as if they were nothing. During the two days after the meeting, the couple spent whatever free time they could just in the presence of the other just relaxing. This ritual had been something the two of them had done when they were children. They would just spend their days lounging about with the other talking about the stories they had read, songs they had heard, or the shows they had watched. Never once did they speak of cooking, unless they were hungry, since that world was where they were not allowed to just be Erina and Sōma, a young couple in love.

The night before the Shokugeki was to occur, Erina had somehow snuck herself into her boyfriend's bedroom. Though she had woken the redhead from his slumber, the young man had not minded a bit since he himself had been wanting some form of close contact with his girlfriend lately. Nothing really occurred that night between them, as both were a little nervous about tomorrow. Instead, they slept innocently in the embrace of the other.

Before he left his room for the Shokugeki Arena, Sōma was pulled into a slow and deep kiss with girlfriend that lasted nearly half a minute. When they pulled away for air, they leaned their foreheads together and allowed their heavy breath to mingle.

"You better win Sōma-kun, or I'll never forgive you."

"You and me both," the redhead chuckled, trying to ease the tension in the room. He kissed her deeply once more before pulling back. "Will you watch?"

"It's only fair since you came to watch my own," she answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"Oi."

* * *

"I've been meaning to ask," Ikumi began out of the blue as they were waiting up on stage to begin. "But what is that cloth around your neck?"

"This?" he asked as he removed the mentioned piece of cloth from around his neck and then proceeded to tie it around his forehead. Right as if on cue, Nakiri Erina entered the box lounge in the Tōtsuki Arena to watch the match. "This is a promise I made with my best friend when we were six. And it's to show her and the world that I'm fighting for her sake."

Though she had no doubt in Ikumi's abilities, Erina knew that this Shokugeki was Sōma's win the moment she saw all the ingredients he had chosen for this event. A nostalgic smile flitted across her lips as she remembered when she first had that dish. Shaking her head to break her trip down memory lane, she returned to the present to watch her two fellow First Years cook as if their lives depended upon it. That was essentially true since it meant Ikumi would lose her prestige if she lost to the redhead. For Sōma and herself, the stakes were even higher, as it meant that the gap that already existed between them would grow exponentially if the he lost in this match. In which case, both them would have to give up on the future they dreamed of together.

"Fate must be cruel to pit two of my friends against each other," the blonde murmured as she watched her boyfriend and subordinate put on the finishing touches to their dishes. Once Ikumi had served her dish to the judges, the redhead strode forward confidently without a hint of hesitation or anxiety.

"This is Yukihira Style Chaliapin Steak Don," her boyfriend called out as he pulled the lids off of the three prepared dishes for the judges.

A little less than five minutes later, and the winner of the match was decided in a complete upset and shutout. Erina sighed as she stood from her seat and stared down at the defeated girl who lay on the raised dais. Their eyes connected for just a moment and the blonde Nakiri could see the pain flash across her fellow blonde's green eyes. She then turned and exited the box lounge, her eyes misty since she had, essentially, publically disowned one of her few friends.

"Hisako-chan, I hate this," she muttered as she swiped at her teary face. The blonde then embraced her pink haired friend who respectfully obliged to hold the quietly crying girl.

"C'mon Nikumi!" The two of them looked up to see that Sōma was dragging along a struggling Ikumi by her hand, doing his best to bring the girl along with him to heaven knows where. "I told you, she still wants to be your friend!"

"No she doesn't Sōma!" the tanned blonde shouted back as she dug her feet into the ground. "I lost! Erina-sama has no need for people who lose!" Ikumi was surprised when she felt another hand suddenly tug on her and saw that it was a teary eyed and frustrated Erina doing so. She was so surprised in fact that she stopped resisting and was catapulted toward her fellow blonde. The two of them would have fallen had it not been for Sōma steadying the two of them.

"I still have need of my friends!" Erina stated to her fellow blonde as she hugged her closer. "We're still friends despite the fact you lost to Sōma-kun."

"Erina-sama?" the green-eyed blonde stammered as she stood in the other girl's arms.

"Erina. I want you to call me Erina," the pink-eyed blonde sniffed as she pulled back. "We're friends."

"And friends are equals," Hisako interjected as she too joined in, hugging both blondes.

Sōma, realizing that this was a private moment between friends, slowly began to edge away from the group so that he could give them some alone time. He nearly choked to death when his scarf cloth was tugged on by someone, more than likely his girlfriend.

"What was that for?" he asked, coughing a little. He was then given a deep kiss that had him frozen for a second. Though he registered Ikumi's surprised yelp, he was more focused on his girlfriend's lips at the moment. "Again, what was that for?" the redhead asked once more as they pulled away from each other.

"Just thanks. It was really nice what you did for me and Ikumi," Erina replied with a happy blush upon her cheeks.

"Always," he murmured with a roguish grin on his face before dipping once more to kiss his girlfriend on her lips. When they pulled away, they looked over at the blushing duo that were staring at them. Hisako was looking away with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks while Ikumi was gaping at the two of them, matching blush as well, finger pointing back and forth between the two of them.

"Keep it a secret, 'kay, Ikumi-chan?" Erina told her fellow blonde as she pressed a finger to her lips.

* * *

AN: Fuck. I'm so tired. I need to get to sleep for my shift at 10:30. Urgh. Also Miya, baby, stop demanding so much from me. I can only do so much before I'm bone dry. Urgh. Also, if none of you have read the new Chapter 9, I suggest you do so now.

Read and review everyone. Urgh.


	11. Chapter 11 Rivals and Lovers

第十一章

ライブルと恋人

Chapter 11

Rivals and Lovers

* * *

"Oh wow, this place is huge!" A silence descended in the personal kitchen of Nakiri Erina as everyone stared in shock at one Yukihira Sōma. The redhead was of course ignoring the gawking looks he was receiving as he began to wander around the kitchen. As he began to rummage around the numerous chefs soon found their wits and began shouting at the oblivious young man to leave.

"Leave this holy place!"

"We don't need diner scum like you!"

"Stop touching things that don't belong to you!"

"Get out of here you trash!"

The snide and rude comments they made did not phase the redhead one bit. In fact, he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat with glee on the inside since they were getting rather worked up over this. It was everyone's school anyway. No one really had any right to the land after all. Okay, maybe Erina since she was the Director's granddaughter.

Wait. Would that not mean he also had a right to this room anyway since he was her boyfriend? As the youthful chef pondered this he had not even realized it had grown quiet around him. When he finally broke from his pondering, the redhead nearly jumped in fright at how close his girlfriend was to him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked coldly, a light glare directed at Sōma and a frown on her lips.

"What, I can't?" he replied with a raised brow and grin. His eyes then took on an excited gleam as he darted past the blonde to where one of the cooking knife sets was lying on the counter. Letting loose a frustrated sigh, Erina followed after her boyfriend, stomping slightly as she did, so that she could hold a proper conversation with him.

"Yukihira-kun, don't you have your own clubroom that you can fool around in?" she asked with a frown as he pulled out a Utility knife as well as a French knife. She grew irritated when the redhead began inspecting the knives one by one and in general toying with them, his entire attention focused on the sharp and dangerous utensils in his hands. "Are you even listening to me Yukihira Sōma?!"

"My Diner RS… It's getting to difficult to handle."

"Come again?"

"The Diner of the Masses Research Society I created is getting too difficult to properly maintain and lead," he repeated with a gloomy expression as he replaced the knife back in its slit before slumping over onto the counter.

"Diner of the Masses RS?" she repeated back to the redhead who nodded dejectedly. "I thought you were part of the Don RS?" Remembering back to the even that occurred a few days ago, the blonde pinned down her boyfriend with a vicious glare. "Do you mean to tell me you took part in a Shokugeki that was none of your business? Even for someone like you, that is simply reckless beyond comprehension."

"Nah that's not it," he answered with a dismissive wave of his hand, irking his girlfriend even more as he easily ignored her scolding him. The redhead paused however as he recalled he had not really planned on joining the Don RS. That was true until he realized that if word got back to Erina on him gambling his education, not to mention only chance with her, away due to his impulsiveness she would never forgive him at all. Discretion was the better part of valor after all. "Anyway, three days after the Shokugeki, a week ago, I was approached by six RS leaders wanting to merge."

"Whatever for?" By the pointed stare she was receiving from her childhood friend, she should have come to _that_ conclusion since she was part of the group that allowed RS to merge. Erina was somewhat aware of the reason why some of the smaller RS would join up with Sōma since she herself had been targeting them. It was more than likely due to protection since the redhead had indefinitely postponed the destruction of the Don RS.

"After debating amongst ourselves, they decided to make me leader of the new RS. I decided that the combined RS would be renamed the Diner of the Masses RS since all of the founding RS focused on food found in your everyday diners." The long suffering sigh he let loose had everyone around him wondering if the young man was all right in the head. Erina meanwhile wanted to comfort her boyfriend and ease his woes, though that would have to wait since they were in public. "But it's so hard managing a RS of fifty people," he moaned wearily.

"Fifty members?!" nearly everyone in Erina's personal kitchen shouted. That number was comparable to the size of a seminar. Not only that, but most RS usually never went over twenty and on the rare occasion thirty, as the sheer size of the RS was considered too overwhelming to properly maintain.

"It would have been bigger had I not rejected a number of them," he sighed as he rubbed his face. "Too many of them were cowards who ran when someone bigger rolled onto the scene. I can't have people like that, now can I?"

"Yukihira-kun, why are you heading such a large RS in your first year, in the first month no less?" Erina asked as she locked eyes with her boyfriend, wondering what he was up to. He could have simply rejected the mergers with the other RS. It made no sense to control such a massive RS, much less as a First Year, let alone a Transferee.

Then again, this was Yukihira Sōma they were talking about.

"I said I was aiming for the top, didn't I?" he told her seriously as he stared back into her pink eyes. "To even stand a ghost of a chance at succeeding, I'll need a powerbase to stand on even ground with those who are a part of the Elite Ten." A tense atmosphere descended over the kitchen as the two First Years stared down one another intensely. That tension broke a moment later when Sōma let loose a withering sigh and dropped his head on the counter with a thud.

Even if he was a loudmouth, big talker, every person showed at least some mild form of concern when his head impacted against the counter.

"I just never realized how much of a pain in the ass it was to run a club," he moaned as he brought himself back up and held his face in his hands. "The amount of paperwork I've had to read through and sign is astounding. Not to mention Level Two personal files of all my members that I needed to read through and still do!" The level of files determined how much information was permitted for viewing on any given individual chef. Level One files contained simple information such as date of birth, contact information, interesting notes and physical description, sans female measurements, and were accessible to the general public. Level Two files contained cooking specialties as well as grades in classes. These were assessable to RS presidents so that they could filter applicants. That's actually as far as Sōma could remember on that subject.

A strangled scream was let loose from his throat. "It's like I'm running my own restaurant! No make that two, no four of them!"

"And why exactly are you in here then if you need to maintain them? If you're here to moan and complain about being a pseudo-chef-owner, then leave this place now. I've no time to listen to you complain about your woes." She felt an eyebrow twitching in frustration when her boyfriend shook his head. Luckily no one caught on to her frustration. "So you've something you wish to ask me? Will this take long?"

"Not really?"

"That's not a definite answer Yukihira-kun," she replied with a deadpan, doing her best to reply curtly as to reinforce her cold image. The blonde felt frustration mounting due to maintaining a cold composure toward her boyfriend and thus an oncoming headache.

"Okay! Okay! I get it," he admitted with a chuckle, smile dancing on his face and eyes gleaming cheerfully. Erina had to stifle the blush that would have grown on her face due to her boyfriend's carefree and smiling face. She pondered for a second on how far deep in love she really was before returning to the present. "I'll ask you a few questions-"

"Make it four questions." A superior smirk appeared on her face that had the redhead frowning in return. "And because I'm feeling generous, you have a total of ten minutes to discuss them with me before I force you to leave."

"That's not fair," he whined in a childish fashion, complaining about the fact he had to bargain with his own girlfriend for her time. The world was so unfair.

"You can either accept my deal or you can leave," Erina said as she challenged the redhead with a raised brow and light smirk. Sōma bit back the smart retort that was on the tip of his tongue, something along the lines of "Erina-sama is so merciful to us mere mortals," simply because he knew his girlfriend would have to retaliate to it with force to keep the charade going. Instead, the young man nodded his head in acceptance. "Go on," the blonde began as she leaned on the counter near him.

"Is it advisable that I get a secretary like you to deal with the scheduling and paperwork of my RS? There's still a backlog of paperwork I need to do, and none of the sub-leaders are particularly good in that field." The first question he had posed for his girlfriend had her pondering for a few moments.

"Are any of the other members with exceptional skills in management?" she asked the redhead. Sōma had to ponder that for a moment as his mind did its best to recall the information it had gathered on the already read files of the some odd number of members. He shook his head in the negative.

"I haven't looked over all the files yet."

"Then your first priority is to do so. If any of them stand out, then broach the subject of management with them. If they decline, then you can always post a flier advertising for the position." She frowned a little as she considered what that meant for the Don of Diner of the Masses RS. "However, that would mean you'd have to accept whatever compensation they demand if you're that desperate for the position to be filled."

"So long as they don't ask for my virginity, I'm fine with that! I hate paperwork already!" the youthful chef laughed jovially. A number of students blushed deeply when they heard that, completely embarrassed at the redhead's comment.

"I didn't hear that. Next question," Erina muttered with a light blush on her face, eyebrow twitching in frustration. Her blush was due to both embarrassment and rage, since her boyfriend's chastity was hers and hers alone. Sōma felt like teasing her, but decided against it since he only had so much time and did not want to jeopardize it with a smart aleck remark. Composing himself, he breathed in and out so that he could focus on the task at hand.

"Is there any way to expand the room of my RS? It's kinda cramped in there like I said. The rooms that the previous smaller RS occupied are scattered around." He scratched the back of his head as he chuckled uncomfortably. "It's kinda hard running back and forth between some of the clubrooms."

"There are several unused clubrooms, however they are scattered around the school ground. Wait, aren't there a few unused building in the vicinity of the Polar Star Dorms you can use?" she asked him while the other students around them were wondering what the Polar Star Dorms were. "I'm quite sure you can use those for your Diner RS."

"But it's so far from the main campus," Sōma groaned as he held his head in his hands. "I'm quite sure no one will appreciate making the walk all the way there, what with it being nearly an hour." The blonde cringed on the inside as well, remembering that the walk was rather grueling.

"There is that," she agreed with a nod. "However, a substantial number of students here at Tōtsuki have either moped licenses or bicycles so that they can traverse Tōtsuki's grounds due to its sheer size."

"I'll think on it," he muttered as he began going over all the information he had gathered in his mind recently. The number of unused buildings still in ship-shape had to be accounted for first. Then there was the matter of distance to in relation to the school to ease travel time.

Before Sōma could hurt himself thinking too much, Erina interrupted his train of thought. Though she found it both cute and amusing the way his face screwed up in concentration, she had to remind herself that she had a role to play. "Five minutes."

"Right," the redhead muttered as he refocused his thoughts on the next two questions. "Is the progress report different due to the size of my RS or is it the same if I had only a few people? I asked Kanichi-senpai and even he has no clue on how to deal with it."

"That's a tricky one since your RS is setting a precedent," Erina told the young man as she rested her chin on the back of her hand, thoughtful look in her eyes. "Never before has Tōtsuki had a multifocal RS in its history. The reason being is the difficulty in running one, since the budget of said RS will be spread amongst all of its projects. But not just that but the sheer management skills required to properly oil the gears of the RS." She sighed quietly and regarded her boyfriend with an even gaze.

"Now I'm seeing what you were complaining about," she told him with a somewhat small and whimsical grin gracing her lips as she patted his shoulder. The redhead just slumped further even more as he lamented over his situation.

"Don't complain, it's your RS. You have free reign on how to structure it and how you want to submit your progress report." How was it that she was playing the bright and optimistic role for Yukihira Sōma, when he was comparable to a thousand watt bulb more often than not? "And as a member of the Elite Ten, I'll bring it up in discussion with the others on how you want to submit it when you've decided. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Two minutes."

"Okay, ummm… The budget of my RS can't support the number of projects I wish to have researched every month. At this rate we'll only have enough for maybe one project for three, maybe four, out of seven of the subcategories my RS has. Is there any way I can increase the budget?"

"Didn't you merge with six other RS?" she asked with a raised brow as she tried to comprehend his reasons for asking for a raised budget. Either he was trying to be overly ambitious with those projects, or the RS he had merged with were just as in the red as him. The latter seemed more plausible since she was the cause of their willingness to merge.

"I did." He bit back the snarky remark though and instead steered the direction of the conversation away from snipes. "Look, I want each of the founding RS to put forth their own projects so they can grow. I can't let them fall behind and stagnate due to money."

"If moneys a problem, can't Mito-san help you out?" Erina pointed out, wondering if he had already thought of that or if it had slipped his mind as he was wont to do.

"I already asked if she could. Ever since the Shokugeki the only one supporting her endeavors is her mother, and she doesn't have as much influence as her husband," he admitted with a sigh as he drew his hand down his face in frustration. From the way Ikumi talked about her father, it seemed they were not on the best of terms. Add that a mere 'commoner' like Sōma defeated her in a Shokugeki, with cheap bargain sale meat no less, and the relationship between father and daughter was reaching critical mass.

"I can get your budget increased then Yukihira-kun," she reassured him with a somewhat condescending manner. "That is if you grovel before me." Everyone stalled at her command, including Sōma and Hisako who had just joined them half-way through their discussion. "Beg like the commoner you are to me," she told him with a superior air as she placed her palm over the center of her chest, "and I'll think on giving you just a little bit more of a budget."

Up until that point quite a number of students were beginning to wonder if there was some sort of master-servant between the redhead and blonde due to the way they interacted with one another. Erina seemed just a little too familiar with the youthful chef. Was he a servant of the Nakiri family that no one had heard or seen of? The familiar and easy way he acted around her would have been doubly suspicious if not for the fact he always acted like that.

Some speculated that the reason she acted so was because he was personally acknowledged by Nakiri Erina during the Transfer Exam. It was possible that she saw him as some sort of chef she could personally mold into being her personal subordinate. That was quickly dismissed since she had Arato Hisako as her aide since childhood. That still brought into question why she was getting on so well with him despite his declaration of becoming number one.

Many finally came to the conclusion that the only reason why Erina was even deigning to help the redhead was because she saw him as less than her the moment she commanded him to grovel before her. They had realized that he was something more of fool kept within the royal court that amused everyone up until the point the jester was no longer wanted, much less needed.

How far from the truth they really were.

Yukihira Sōma pondered on whether or not he should actually grovel before his girlfriend in such a demeaning manner. He debated all of five seconds with himself on if should and just thought screw it. With a shrug, he bent down on one knee and prostrated himself before his blonde friend, surprising not only her and Hisako but everyone else due to his willingness to place himself lower than his girlfriend.

"Milady Erina," he began as he bowed his head in deference to her, "I have come to you as a humble student of this Tōtsuki Tea Ceremony and Cooking Academy to ask if you would please gift unto my humble Diner of the Masses Research Society a boon that is a larger budget. I would be forever in your debt if you assist me in such a trying and critical time of me and my own. I beg this of you and not the other members of the Tōtsuki Elite Ten Council simply because word has reached me of how compassionate and kind your grace is to us mere students."

To say that everyone was further surprised and rightly stunned speechless would be an understatement. The way he was talking and acting, as if he were actually a high class citizen rather the commoner he was made out to be, had everyone thrown for a loop, more so the blonde Tenth Seat than anyone else.

Erina was quite surprised in both the way he prostrated himself before her and the way he addressed her. She had not expected him to actually beg like this in truth. Not that she was complaining. Though the way he praised her had her furiously repressing a blush that would have more than likely blown their relationship out of the water. When he took her hand in his own and gently kissed her knuckles, she once more had to make sure a blush did not show. A shiver however ran down her spine that had her tingling at her core.

"You play your part well," she calmly stated, doing her best to play her part ironically enough, as she pulled her hand back. "Since I'm feeling kind, I shall bring up the issue of your RS's monthly budget during the next Elite Ten meeting." A smirk graced her lips as she looked down at the still prostrating chef. "Do not forget that you are no indebted to me."

"What would Milady ask of me?" he said as he looked up and stared her down, eyes gleaming with mischief.

Tapping a finger to her chin, Erina realized she had not thought that far ahead, seeing as she had not expected Sōma to agree to him indebted to her. "Nothing at the moment Yukihira-kun. Oh look at that, times up."

"Do I really have to go?" the redhead asked as he stood to his full height. His answer was from his girlfriend was her grabbing the cloth around his neck and pulling on like a leash. Doing his best not to choke, he followed after her so that he had at least some dignity.

"My RS members still need to finish the task I assigned them. I will not have them dallying due to distractions."

"But I'm not a distraction!"

Rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's antics, Erina opened the door to her personal kitchen before roughly shoving the redhead through the threshold. Though he stumbled as he exited the kitchen, Sōma was able to right himself and not fall into an undignified heap in the hallway.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" she asked him with a raised brow, and an amused grin on face with her hands on her hips. "As much as I'd like to hang out with my boyfriend, both you and I have important business to attend to."

"But being with my girlfriend _is_ more important," he whined lamely in response as he engulfed her in a hug and kissed her on the forehead. His girlfriend let loose a giggle as he did so, though she pushed him to arm's length so he could not repeat his stunt.

"And me being with my boyfriend is just as important," the blonde whispered as she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Once she pulled back, she flicked him in the head. "No tongue you," she scolded him as she poked his chest.

Chuckling a little to himself, the redhead caught her hand in his own and threaded their fingers together. "So I guess we have to part then, ne?" he asked her with just a hint of sadness.

"Actually, my schedule is completely free tomorrow," she told him in a half hopeful voice. That was a lie since she had set for herself several objectives to complete tomorrow. Luckily enough she could put them off for another few days or so. She would have to remember to tell Hisako to clear her schedule for tomorrow when she returned however.

"How's about you drop by the Polar Star Dorms for breakfast tomorrow. Then we head out so we can go on a date." The dashing and roguish smile on his face had his blonde friend blushing abashedly before she diverted her gaze, lest she end up kissing him senseless out in the open.

"You had better be cooking for the two of us then," she muttered before she placed a quick kiss on his cheek. Erina then hugged him tightly and turned on her heel to return to managing her underlings. Schooling her features so that no one would get a whiff of their relationship, the blonde opened the door to her kitchen before slamming it roughly behind her. From behind the door, Sōma heard his girlfriend shout, "If I find that one of you has made little to no progress since Yukihira-kun entered then I'll have you kicked out!"

The redhead really hoped that was a scare tactic.

* * *

Once Sōma made it back to his clubroom a half hour later, he began discussing with his fifty members on whether or not they would agree in moving the location of the RS to one of the unused buildings near the Polar Star Dorms. After a vote in which forty-two to eight voted in favor of doing so the redhead had one of the more fleet footed students look in a few locations near the Polar Star Dorms.

After nearly three quarters of an hour of going through all of the unread student files, the redhead had gone into a meeting with the seven former heads of the founding RS to discuss how they would structure both the management and labor of the RS as well as debating which of the seven buildings they would use to house their RS once they received the intel. They had talked for nearly an hour and a half before coming to a consensus. However they had decided to put the restructuring on hold in the meantime so that they could settle into their new location.

"Sorry guys," Sōma told the other heads as he clapped his hands before his face in the form of an apology. "But I won't be available tomorrow at all from morning to evening."

"Hot date tomorrow Yukihira?" Taiga Kuzumi, Tempura Master, teased his underclassman with a grin on his face. He actually could pass for Sōma's older brother since they looked so similar albeit one was a brunette and the other a redhead with a prominent scar.

"Don't you have a date later today though Taiga?" Though he looked like a delinquent, what with his Yankee appearance, Imamura Kinichiro was a rather polite Second Year student who specialized in all things Ramen.

"Speaking of which," the brunette muttered as he got out of his chair and pulled out his cellphone. A look of horror crossed his face as he looked at the recent message. "Shit! So sorry guys, gotta go!" He then beat a hasty exit, leaving the others to stare at the dust trail he had left.

"Is the meeting adjourned then Yukihira?" Sanada Yūki, a Second Year who looked more like a model than a chef, asked in a quiet voice. Receiving a nod from the redhead, she too rose from her seat and bid her farewell to the other presidents before departing. The remaining presidents then all rose as one and dismissed the RS members for the day, but not before telling them that they would be meeting at a building near the Polar Star Dorms to set up their new base of operations.

* * *

Yawning a little as he made his way back to his dorms, Sōma decided to distract himself with daydreams of cooking the best tasting, becoming the First Seat of the Elite and marrying Erina and starting a family. A blush crossed over his face in embarrassment once that last thought crossed his mind since that was way off into the distant future. It was not a terrible thought, on the contrary, he reasoned that it seemed natural simply because it was so them.

'Speaking of Erina.' Pulling out his cellphone, the redhead opened his emails to see if his girlfriend had sent any to him recently. Scrolling through his recently opened ones, he read them over before opening the latest one recently sent about an hour ago.

 _Subject: Listen to me_

 _Time: 2X/X7/1X_

 _RE: I'm so tired. My body and my stomach are killing me. I think I sampled too many dishes. And you still haven't given me that recipe Sōma-kun! I want it now! Now! Now! Now!_

 _Subject: Miss you_

 _Time: 2X/X7/1X_

 _RE: I haven't seen you in a few days. Have you been busy? I would have dropped by but it would have been weird for me to do so. Well, that and I'm swamped with work. :( I miss my boyfriend. Can I have him back yet?_

 _Subject: Friends_

 _Time: 2X/X7/1X_

 _RE: It's been so long since I could just relax with friends. Ikumi, Hisako and I all went out for a day spa and I feel so refreshed. We had to do it secretly since I'm not supposed to be Ikumi's friend, but that made it so much more fun! Next time we should go to an onsen together. \\(^o^)/_

Sōma knew where they were going for tomorrow and that also explained where Ikumi had suddenly disappeared to. The final message he read was the one recently received and had him grinning like a madman.

 _Subject: Sleep_

 _Time: 2X/X7/1X_

 _RE: Leave the door unlocked, okay? (-\\\\\\-)_

* * *

When Erina quietly entered her boyfriend's room she set down the bag containing clothes for tomorrow's events. Stripping down to her undergarments, the blonde then pulled out a pink colored pajama set she had bought with Hisako and Ikumi a few days ago and donned it. Once she was under the covers she wriggled a little closer to her boyfriend and spooned up against his back.

"They're pressing up against me you know," Sōma mumbled half-sleepily, referring to his girlfriend's breasts pressing up against his bare back, or more specifically her nipples.

"They're like that because it's cold in here," she muttered with a pout as she snuggled closer to him, breathing in the hint of spices, oils and meats that was her boyfriend's scent. "Besides, I like cuddling with my boyfriend," Erina told him in a small voice.

Flipping himself over, Sōma surprised his girlfriend by wrapping his arms around her before placing a kiss on her lips. "Better?" he asked quietly as he pulled her up against his chest, subtlety referring to their long hiatus of no contact whatsoever other than earlier that day.

"Yeah," she whispered quietly as she listened to her lover's heart. "I feel much better now."

A few minutes later and the two of them fell into a quiet sleep with small, content smiles on their faces.

* * *

AN: I'm really tired. So it looks like one chapter a week because I'm also working on Serenity. I feel that'll work since I'll be working on the character aspect in between the main events so I can gather info from the anime and manga. I think people forget this is about High School kids and thus forget that there will be High School drama. Well, then again I blame the writer for not developing the High School drama part more. Anyway, next chapter will be a First Date Antics chapter.

Do these names sound familiar or no?

Also, Miya, baby, it's both our faults that it's not working out how we want it to. I'm tired all the time, and I you're always demanding more. Not to mention that you found someone else better than me. *Sigh* I don't think our relationship will work the way it is now. Please, just be patient with me, okay? I'm trying my best.


	12. Chapter 12 Girlfriend and Boyfriend

第十二章

ガールフレンドとボーフレンド

Chapter 12

Girlfriend and Boyfriend

* * *

Wide awake, yet bleary eyed, Erina yawned quietly as she stretched herself out on her boyfriend's bed. She rolled her shoulders a few times as she had slept on her side last night rather than on her back as she usually did. Looking over her shoulder, she observed that it was only six thirty-six in the morning. Suppressing a groan, Erina cursed the fact she was such an early riser. Stifling a small yawn, the blonde let a silly smile appear on her lips as she observed the other occupant of the bed.

Erina let a quiet giggle pass her lips as she repeatedly poked the redhead in the cheek, amused by the fact he was making funny faces as a result of her numerous small taps. As she continued to do so, she let out a small surprised sound when her finger was suddenly nipped at by her redheaded boyfriend's teeth.

"Sōma-kun, you little demon!" she giggled as she shoved him lightly, rousing the grinning redhead so that he was fully awake and aware. "You're not supposed to bite that," the blonde squealed before she slapped his shoulder playfully.

"Well they are Lady Fingers," Sōma retorted with a cheeky grin. The young man laughed a little when he was once more slapped, this time a little harder, by his girlfriend. He then took her hand in his own and gave it a gentle squeeze, goofy grin on his face as he beheld the pouting blonde. The grin on his face infectious as Erina could not help the grin that spread on her own face.

Feeling a little adventurous the blonde leaned so that she could place a quick chaste kiss upon his cheek. That single, small action had both of them blushing deeply much like tomatoes due the display of affection. At the same time the smiles on their faces had grown wide due the joy, happiness and love they felt for one another in their hearts despite the embarrassment.

A happy and content sigh was let loose from Erina's lips as she allowed their current situation to burn into her memory. There were so few moments like this where it was just the two of them acting as just boyfriend and girlfriend, just Sōma and Erina. Being themselves without worry about the pressures and influences of the outside world, society and people was such a rare thing for high profile people like them that any moment where it was only them without a care in the world was considered a precious gift.

"This is nice," the blonde murmured as she began to draw random patterns and shapes along her boyfriend's bare chest. She reveled in the way his muscles seemed to tense wherever her fingers would trail across his skin as if they were responding to her feather light touches so that she would know his muscles were there.

"Yeah," her boyfriend agreed with a nod as he placed a small kiss upon her forehead that had her giggling and the two of them blushing even harder. "It's kinda refreshing to just have a lie in like this after all of the work we've had to go through in the last few days." A nice change of pace was always a good way to relax and relieve the stress that one has piled up over the last few days.

"C'mon, we need to get up," Erina muttered to her boyfriend as she turned over and swung her legs off the bed. "I know you mister. You'd sleep like a brick if knew you had nothing better to do at all." The small glare and frown on her lips had the redhead chuckling in an amused manner as he too got off the bed, feeling somewhat cowed by the blonde to get up and about.

As he made his way from his bed to the closet, the Yukihira could feel his girlfriend's hungry gaze burning into both his back and rear. That was just fine since he himself had ogled the young woman like a piece of meat, even if that was a rather chauvinistic way of putting it. Her gaze was lifted off of him when he heard movement behind him telling him that the blonde had made her way to where the overnight bag she brought along was placed.

When he turned around, Sōma saw that the two of them had the same idea in what they wanted to do next and blushed deeply, matching his girlfriend's flushed cheeks. "So," he coughed into his hand, "So, uh, how do you want to do this?"

"You live here," Erina offered up halfheartedly with an uneven smile. Her boyfriend however disagreed when he shook his head and said, "You live here too Erina."

"I can wait," she replied with a huff, her cheeks puffing out as she pouted. When she did not receive a reply from her boyfriend, the blonde looked over to see that he was blushing so hard that it looked as if he were to faint any moment. The way his eyes were darting to her and then away had her wondering what he was thinking. It was then a moment later that it dawned on her what he was thinking exactly and a burning blush blazed its way into existence on her cheeks.

"I-It's n-nothing to be e-embarrassed about," the blonde stammered out as she averted her eyes away from her half-naked boyfriend. "I-I mean, we are b-boyfriend and g-girlfriend. T-There's nothing to be e-embarrassed about! N-Nothing. N-Nothing at all!" Erina almost dropped her basket of clothes and bath products when she just about yelped in shock when her boyfriend's face was just a few centimeters away from her own staring strongly at her face.

"A-Are you really okay with that?" Sōma asked seriously as his eyes locked with her own. "I mean, we'll be n-n-naked in the bath with each other." He swallowed hard, eyes darting down to her soft, pink lips before back to her pink, soulful eyes unconsciously licking his own lips.

As she chewed her bottom lip between her teeth, his blonde girlfriend began to question whether or not it would actually be acceptable for the two of them, high school students and first years no less, to take a bath together. In their society, and any other First World society, such a thing was frowned upon due the fact they were not married to one another for such a thing to be considered acceptable. If they were children, it would have been considered acceptable if their families were in good relations with each other.

However, she remembered that when it was just the two of them, they were only Erina and Sōma. They were not anything else. She was not the Tenth Seat, granddaughter of Nakiri Senzaemon, a Nakiri or a girl carrying the vaunted God's Tongue. When it was her and him she was only Erina, Sōma's girlfriend and childhood friend. The same could same could be said of the redhead; if it was only the two of them, he was not the son of Saiba Jōchirō, the Transfer Student or the head of a fifty man RS. He was only Sōma, her boyfriend and childhood friend.

Still blushing up a storm, Erina grabbed the redhead's hand and stared up into his eyes with a fierce fire in her own. "It's fine," she told him in a determined voice, despite the quiver in it and her how body was shaking like a leaf.

"A-Are you sure?" the redhead asked in an uncertain voice. Though a part of him felt giddy about the fact he would be bathing with a young woman, one he was in love with no less, he was quite nervous about the fact that he would be bathing with a person of the opposite gender, and his girlfriend no less! Maybe he could get her to reconsider.

When he opened his mouth to utter a rebuttal one that Erina knew was coming due to the conflicted look in his eyes, the blonde and released her hold on his hand and clamped it over his mouth instead. She then leveled a glare on him that brooked no refusal from the redhead.

Though initially stunned by the fact his childhood friend was practically telling him to just take a bath with her due to her glare, his eyes softened once he saw the pleading look in the back of her eyes. Finally understanding that Erina wanted to do this not as sexual encounter, but rather as a way for them to slowly break down the boundaries separating them, Sōma gently took the hand clasped over his mouth and kissed the knuckles. "If that is what Milady wishes, then I shall abide," he told her in a smooth voice.

"I'm not a Lady when it's just the two of us," she replied with such a growl that Sōma wondered if that red cross-shaped popping vein on her forehead was real or not. "We're just Erina and Sōma." A smirk then appeared on her face as she gently caressed her boyfriend's cheek. "Or did you forget your own words Sōma-kun?" she questioned saucily, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Nah," the redhead replied as he took her hand in his own once more. "I didn't forget." With that said Sōma then juggled his basket around to his forearm so that he could open the door and head towards the bath with his girlfriend in tow.

* * *

"C-Close your eyes," Erina commanded on the other side of the sliding door in the changing area. Her childhood friend, who was relaxing in the bath after having rinsed for a short minute, went along with her demand just to humor her. "Y-You better not peek when I come in there!" she stammered out as she fidgeted right before the door.

"It's not like I haven't seen anything at all," the redhead groused as he crossed his arms over his chest. He heard an indignant squawk from behind the door and chuckled a little. "I thought we had nothing to be embarrassed about Erina? Or was that you talking- big?!" he exclaimed in shock when he turned toward the door to see his girlfriend standing a few decimeters away, glaring at him in indignation.

The superior smirk she shot him once he finally got his heartrate under control had him growling in the back of his throat at her sneaky mover. "Why are you blushing Sōma-kun?" Erina wondered as she tapped her chin with her pointer finger, a coy smile on her face. "I mean you've seen me before, haven't you?"

"On second thought," the redhead began then trailed off as he diverted his eyes away from the blonde's nude glory. There was no way he was going to win at all. Despite the fact he could be a cocky bastard at times, there were moments where he was reminded that he was just a teenage boy. This was just one of those moments.

"That's what I thought," Erina purred as she leaned over and patted him on the head, a victorious smirk on her face. Her smile grew when she heard her friend swallow hard and knew for a fact that he had to tear his eyes away from her breasts. Pivoting on her feet the blonde then made her way to the stool near the shower head. Knowing that her boyfriend's golden eyes were following her every movement, she took her leisurely time in cleaning her body.

"Ah!" she moaned as she lathered on her body wash over the front of her body. "That feels so good!" Though it seemed a little over the top for her, Erina felt like teasing her boyfriend to get back at him for his earlier teasing. And if that strained growl she heard was any indication, she could tell that it was working. So engrossed in her own revenge was she that she did not hear Sōma emerge from the water and make his way over to her.

"Do you need a little help with that?" Erina very nearly shrieked in fright when she felt the redhead's hot breath right on the nape of her neck. She had almost fallen off of her chair due to her surprise, but was quick to right herself and find her center, thus preserving what dignity she had at the moment.

"W-W-What are you doing Sōma-kun?" she stammered out, squeezing the loofah in her hand a little too roughly. A shiver ran down her spine when she felt his hand gently glide down her arm to grasp the hand that held the loofah.

"May I?" he whispered in a husky tone, his breath causing her skin to tingle at the contact. For a second he wondered whether or not he had gone a little too far with his counter. However, when the grip she had on the loofah slackened the redhead knew that she was going along with his request. Taking the loofah from her with one hand and grabbing her body wash with the other, he then went about reapplying a bit more of the solution to the sponge.

"Be gentle, okay?" Erina told him in a timid voice.

"Of course," her boyfriend told her almost immediately, a hint of deference in his voice as he began to lather her back with the soapy loofah. No words passed between the two of them as the redhead carried out his task, using both hands to run the loofah across the entirety of her back. Once he was done, he paused for a moment before asking, "Did you already get your legs?" Of course, his girlfriend could not see the blush on his face.

"I have." The blonde paused for a moment, wondering exactly why her friend was hesitating like this. It just was not like him at all to do so. "Why do you ask?"

"N-No reason." The slight stammer she heard in his reply had her curious for a moment. But rather than press him for the reason, Erina thought it better to return the favor of soaping up her back. "Could you hand me the shower nozzle?" he asked quickly. A few moments later and Erina's body and hair were completely washed and cleaned.

"Now, how's about we wash you up too?" the blonde told her boyfriend as she rose and grabbed him by the shoulders. Not even a refusal was uttered as Erina somehow strong armed the redhead to sit on the stool. "Do you want me to wash your back or get both your front and back?" she whispered huskily into her friend's ear, her breasts pressing up against his back.

"J-Just the back," the redhead stammered out as his back straightened out, hands immediately flying to his crotch to cover his arousal.

"Are you sure?" she purred into his ear all the while her hands trailed from his shoulders, down his forearms and arms and finally to his clasped hands. "I mean, I could help you relieve that little problem you have right there," Erina whispered seductively. Though she was not able to tease her friend the way she wanted to, tweaking his nipples was fine too.

"It's anything but little," the redhead growled as grabbed his loofah and squeezed some body wash onto it before rubbing it vigorously to produce bubbles. He then grabbed her wrist and placed the loofah in her hand, muttering a frustrated, "Take it."

As his friend scrubbed his back with his loofah and her breasts, inadvertently, the redhead hand his hands balled up into fists on his legs while he kept his mind focused on subjects and objects other than what was currently going on. Those softy, squishy and fleshy objects pressing up against his back had the young man trying his best to not lose the failing battle of maintaining his control and sanity. Though he knew she was in truth teasing him, Sōma had to admit that having his girlfriend help wash his back was rather calming.

Though she had initially thought that what she was doing would be a good way to tease the redhead, Erina had felt that her washing his back was rather relaxing and mundane. After a while she had started to realize that the little mundane things that others had taken for granted, such as holding a loved one's hand, hugging them, smiling and laughing with them, and just being with them, were worth so much when she had so little time to spend with the one closest to her. So something as everyday normal as washing her boyfriend's back in the bath was more fulfilling than anything else to Erina, even cooking.

"Here you go," Erina said to her friend as she handed the loofah back to him. "Thanks," he muttered quietly, a small blush on his face as he began to lather his front all the while with the blonde's eyes following his every movement. Once he was done with that he reached for the shower head, only to be beaten to it by his girlfriend.

"Erina?"

"May I please?" she asked him with trepidation in her voice.

"Oh, uh, sure?" he answered back with a question in return. "I mean, you have the shower head in your hand anyway." Had Sōma looked over his shoulder at his friend's face, he would have seen a brilliant smile on her lips.

"Ready?" When her boyfriend nodded his head, eyes closed to keep the suds out, Erina turned on the shower head and proceeded to rinse the hair wash off his head. She then continued along his back and got his shoulders as well.

"What's wrong?" Sōma asked over the sound of the shower head when he realized Erina had stopped for a moment. Though the shower head was switched off a short moment later, he was not handed the item. His friend answered a moment later after hesitating whether or not to just hand him the shower head to continue.

"Do you want me to spray your front?" The blush that emerged on Sōma's face matched the blush that was on the blonde's own cheeks. "Oh! Uh, ummm, uh, y-you can if you w-want to." His reply had the blush on Erina's face reach her ears and deepen in color.

"A-Are you sure?" was her timid question. "J-Just get it o-over and done with. W-We both still need to soak after this." If either of them blushed any more then they were both going to more than likely pass out due to overheating.

"H-Here I go then." Maneuvering herself so that she was now in front of the young man, Erina turned the shower head back on and began to rinse off his chest. The shower head then trailed south from there to his abdomen so it could rinse off the suds there as well. She had up until this point kept her eyes solely focused on his chest, but knew she would have to use them to guide her aim with the shower head. Steeling herself, Erina looked down and swished the shower head side to side to clean off Sōma's member.

Sighing in relief after having gone through that, she then continued from there, careful to divert her eyes away from his length so that she could rinse off her boyfriend's legs. Once she was done with that, she turned the shower head off and returned it to its stand on the wall, eyes still glued to her boyfriend's own golden ones.

"Th-Thanks," he stammered out as he covered himself back up down there. "N-No problem." The two of them looked over at the bathtub and once more their blushes deepened.

"Back to back?" the redhead asked his girlfriend without a glance in her direction.

"I want your arms wrapped around me." Sōma nearly choked on his own spit when he heard that and looked at her with startled eyes. "Come again?"

"You heard me," she growled as she stood, her breasts jiggling a bit. Luckily enough the steam in the room obscured her nether regions so that Sōma was not completely killed. He was surprised however when she grabbed his hand and dragged him up so he was standing.

"You're serious?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Despite I have a b-boner," he made a face at the word, "You want me sitting behind you with my arms around you?"

"If we just focus on each other, then we'll have no problems," she told him with a straight face as she began to push him toward the bathtub. "Besides, you've embraced me like this before." Though he was climbing into the tub, the redhead was putting up a fight just for argument's sake. "Yeah, but we weren't completely naked."

"Semantics," the blonde said offhandedly with a wave of her hand as she climbed in after him. Sōma just rolled his eyes from where he sat as his girlfriend wriggled around in front of him to get a better seat. Sighing a little, he spread his legs a little wider to give her some room. He was surprised however when she scooted back closer to him and grabbed his arms and looped them around her waist "Much better," she murmured as she allowed her body to relax.

Sōma could not any longer find a reason to even argue his case and instead just went with the flow, relaxing in the nice warm water with his girlfriend in his arms. After lying in the water with the blonde for a while, he had begun to realize it was actually easy for him to forget the fact he was sitting in a tub with his naked girlfriend in his arms.

* * *

AN: Short chapter this time around. I needed to update fast to satisfy Miya. Sorry baby. I'll work harder.

Anyway, the date chapter I promised all of you? I'm breaking that down into smaller chunks due to time constraints, so it'll be a three chapter arc for that. Anyway, review please.


	13. Chapter 13 Spicy Breakfast

第十三章

辛い朝御飯

Chapter 13

Spicy Breakfast

* * *

"So what are you going to be cooking for our free day breakfast, Sōma-kun?" Erina wondered aloud as she watched her boyfriend gather up numerous ingredients from around the Polar Star's kitchen. Despite the rather dilapidated appearance of the Polar Star Dormitories, the kitchen of the Dorms showed that this building was part of a culinary academy, and one of the finest in the world. In fact, it had the same feel and appearance as any high-class restaurant's kitchen.

"For breakfast, I was thinking about making us Omurice," the redhead told his friend as he glanced in her direction. She was at the moment humming lightly to herself as she watched him while swinging her legs back and forth on the stool she sat on. However, instead of the standard Tōtsuki girl's uniform, Erina wore a light blue sundress that showed off the valley between her breasts a little too well.

"Oh?" his girlfriend replied with an amused smile and a raised brow. "I don't remember Omurice being made with black pepper, cumin, cardamom, cloves, five spices and mango chutney." Her smile turned sickly sweet when her boyfriend froze in his tracks, stopping what he was momentarily doing, which was lighting the stovetop, so that he could stare at her with a horrified look in his eyes.

"E-Erina?"

"You had better not be using me to taste test another one of your random creations, Yukihira Sōma." Erina hardly ever addressed him by his full name since that usually meant that she was going to go on a tirade, always followed by numerous objects thrown in his direction. "Because if you are, then you can bet your pretty ass that the rest of this day will not go well for you." A terrifying aura soon surrounded the air around his girlfriend, with the included oni mask, that had Yukihira Sōma swallowing hard in fright.

"Nothing like that Erina-chan," he reassured as he waved his hands in front of himself. Sōma hoped that by addressing her so familiarly he would be able to placate her effectively enough. However, since Sōma hardly addressed anyone, let alone his friends or even Erina for that matter, with honorifics, it threw his blonde friend for a loop when she heard the affectionate honorific added to her name.

"Can you?"

"Eh?" the redhead paused in his blustering when he thought he heard his friend mutter something. "Did you say something?" He soon became aware of the fact that his girlfriend was blushing heavily and avoiding looking in his direction whilst fidgeting around.

"Can you not call me Erina-chan?" she muttered loudly enough for her boyfriend to hear. The blonde did not want her childhood friend to realize that when he called her Erina-chan, it sent a sudden yet delicious shock down her spine, ending at her core. The Nakiri would die of embarrassment if her friend knew that she was turned on simply by the way he said her name.

"O-Okay?" Sōma replied dumbly, not really understanding why his girlfriend would not want him to attach that specific honorific to her name. Thinking that the problem had to do with her being a girl, the redhead turned back to work. He was right, in a way; that did not mean he was not a dense moron since he was still ignorant to the workings of a woman's mind. Once he double checked that he had everything ready, he took the piece of cloth from around his neck and wrapped it around his forehead, signaling that he was ready to begin cooking one of his own creations.

All four of the stovetop's burners fired to life within an instant as Sōma began the preparation work for the breakfast dish he was going to be making for himself and Erina this morning. Bits of beef sinew were finely chopped up and tossed into a large pot of water that was beginning to boil along with chicken thigh bones. In one of the two sauce pans on the stove the redhead plopped a bit of butter into the pan and while waiting for it to melt, he chopped up the three distinct spices while grinding the five spices and black pepper finely. Just when he finished preparing the powders, he brought out a bag of flour and added it to the pan of melted butter. From her vantage point across the kitchen, it was finally beginning to dawn upon the blonde girl what exactly her boyfriend was making.

'He's making curry roux,' she thought to herself as she watched Sōma dump in a little curry powder then garam masala followed by all of the other ground ingredients he had worked on into the pan of flour and butter. Her eyes then followed her boyfriend as he put the other sauce pan on a low fire with butter and onion slowly cooking on it.

'Omurice, another dish of the masses,' Erina mused silently as she watched her boyfriend toss in bits of chicken and onion in the second pot and begin to cook those together. Though she was not against dishes of the masses, she preferred the dishes cooked using techniques that could raise those simple dishes to new heights, thus expanding the horizons for their development. Her thoughts on commoner dishes was that she could get common cooked dishes anywhere, but a commoner dish cooked with the techniques, experience and ingenuity of a renowned chef could match or even surpass haute cuisine.

Food of the masses had the ability to evolve exponentially compared to haute cuisine. It also contained an ingredient that none save for home cooked meals could match: human warmth.

'The main selling point of Omurice is not the omelette, but rather the rice it is cooked with.' She twirled a bit of her long blonde hair around her finger, idly going over some of the information on Omurice in her head. "It's a rather simple dish consisting of pan-fried rice using chicken and ketchup. It is then topped with a thin omelette. The most common flavoring over the egg is ketchup as it is inexpensive.'

Her eyes followed her boyfriend movements down to the most subtle movement, including the number of times he stirred the food around. When she heard the dinger on the rice go off, Erina very nearly lost track of her friend's movements as they went by so fast.

The curry roux was moved in an instant to a small bowl and the pan it was previously in was washed out and refilled with a bit of butter, onion and ground beef. A good portion of the rice flew quickly into the pan of butter, beef and onion where each and every grain of rice gained a film of fat, or tostatura as the Italians called it. Once that was done a bottle of red wine suddenly appeared in Sōma's hand who proceeded to give the rice an even coating of the fermented grapes. As the redheaded chef waited for the red wine to evaporate in the pan, he began to beat the eggs together until the egg white was barely visible.

But what happened next was probably the thing that very nearly caused Erina to have a sensory overload and faint dead away.

Once the red wine had evaporated the stock that Sōma had been boiling up until this point was slowly added into even quantities to the cooking rice to loosen up the starch of the rice grains. Not even a second later a small amount of the curry roux was added into the mix followed by a small amount of the mango chutney. A small explosion of aromas would follow each time the stock, curry roux, mango chutney and wine soaked rice would come into contact with each other. The smell of each of the spices would float up into the air, saturating the kitchen's atmosphere with its power. At the same a sweet and pleasant aroma wafted through the air alongside the strong spices which was produced by the mango chutney cooking in the curry risotto. The power and impact of the two aromas became more and more pronounced each and every time the stock, curry roux and mango chutney was added every subsequent time.

'A risotto,' Erina had to pause for a moment to rally her strength together since she was having trouble resisting the scent of the curry risotto. The aroma of the curry risotto was so strong that it was causing her, someone known for her discerning palate, to swoon as if she were an average student of Tōtsuki. 'A risotto is an Italian dish consisting of rice thickened using a hot stock, butter, red or white wine and mixed with vegetables and meats. Curry is originally an Indian dish that was brought to Japan by the British. As such the curry Japanese create is sweeter and slightly less spicy than its Indian counterpart.'

As she went over the attributes of each dishes the redhead was individually preparing yet at the same time combing into one, she watched as Sōma removed the curry risotto from the stove and mixed in butter the thicken it slightly. Apparently she was not paying as much attention to his other tasks compared to his handling of the curry risotto as she was completely caught off guard by the fact that her plate of Omurice was presented right before her topped off by a sauce that she could not discern not but a few minutes later.

'When did he get the time to cook the two omelettes?' she wondered as she looked at her breakfast and then back at her boyfriend. Had she been paying attention she would have noticed that three-quarters of the way through the cooking process of the curry risotto Sōma had begun the work on the omelettes. He had actually timed it so that the moment the curry risotto was covered by the omelette it still had enough residual heat so that it could cook itself under the mass of egg white and yolk.

"What?" Sōma wondered when he noticed the glare being leveled on him by his girlfriend. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I-It's nothing," the blonde replied with a pout and puffed cheeks. She had been hoping to catch the entire process that way she could catalogue it herself and use it one day. Was she going to outright copy it? No. Erina planned on taking his cooking process and placing her own spin on it. Though it was standard practice for chefs to learn from one another, they could never really be their own chef if they outright copied others.

"Without further ado, itadakimasu!" Sōma happily exclaimed as he cut into his serving of the Omurice. A moment later his girlfriend muttered the customary phrase every Japanese person was raised to say before a meal as she too dug into the breakfast made by her childhood friend. When she cut through the mass of omelette, her nose was assaulted by a powerful aroma of spices that once more threatened to overwhelm her.

"You know cooking with aroma alone will only get you so far?" she told her boyfriend with a haughtily raised eyebrow as she took in the multitude of aromas besieging her sense of smell. Since she had to at least keep some of her decorum, she would not show that she was very well taken with her initial impression of his breakfast dish. It would do no good to add hot air her boyfriend's already inflated ego. "Cooking can look and smell fine, but if the flavor and body do not hold up to the expectations of the initial show, then you'll more than likely lose customers."

"Ah, but as you told me before," the redhead replied once he had chewed a little bit of his Omurice, "if its presentation is pedestrian, then the chances of losing customers due to a factor like that is just as likely." He then raised another bite of his Omurice to his mouth and bit down.

"I see a little bit of my own advice is finally soaking through that dense object you call a skull and into your tiny little brain," she teased with a toothy grin, enjoying the deadpan her boyfriend shot her way. Once he had chewed his third bite he grinned back as well and pointed at her Omurice with his fork. "Go on, it's not going to kill you."

'I can't even count the number of times your crazy cooking has nearly done so to me,' Erina thought somewhat bitterly as she shot her boyfriend a glare, unfortunately causing her to remember several of his rather outlandish cooking experiments. Thank goodness she had a stronger constitution that most, least she would not have been able to enjoy his latest dish.

Without further ado, the blonde finally cut a little bit of the Omurice from her early slice into the breakfast dish and brought it to her lips. Once she bit down onto her bit of the risotto and egg, she felt an explosion of spiciness and sweetness battling it out at the same time. As she allowed herself to enjoy it further, she began to understand that it was a symphony of spices dancing in and out one after another. None of the spices seemed to overwhelm the other, especially with the inclusion of the five spices and Black Pepper since they usually take center stage of any dish they were included in. Rather, it was due to the mango chutney that bound the spices together yet acted as a barrier that allowed the customer to savor them individually yet at the same time.

If she could describe it, yes indeed, she would describe it as harmonious day beneath the cherry blossoms during the _Hanami_ shared with an American couple, an Indian couple, a Chinese couple, an Italian couple and herself with Sōma by her side. Each and every one of them offering little bits of their culture such as their brands of drinks, food and clothing. Surrounding them on other blankets were other couples and groups of friends of nearly every single demographic of the human race.

'So harmonious,' Erina thought to herself as she savored the curry risotto. 'Each spice within this dish continuously harmonizes with the others without losing its own place within the Omurice. The honey accented oyster sauce also adds a second grade of taste with its mild sourness. Meanwhile, the risotto holds the flavor of the bouillon of beef sinew and chicken bones from the stock and the flavor of the ground beef and butter that was initially tossed in first.' A sigh passed through her lips as she took another bite of the delicious breakfast dish.

'Using risotto for the rice was brilliant, as its viscosity is in complete harmony with the omelette's moisture.' From his seat across from Erina, Sōma could not help the smile that bloomed on his face when he saw the content and happy smile on his girlfriend's face. 'So many levels of flavor interacting together at once in one dish using ingredients and dishes hailing from different cultures elevate this dish to higher levels. The sauce, then the egg, and the three level rice consisting of a risotto with curry using Chinese spices in the roux.'

"Why didn't you cook this during your entrance exam Sōma-kun?" Erina asked as she swallowed her tenth bite. It made no sense why he would use the Transforming Furikake Gohan if he had this type of dish within his repertoire. She was not trying to come off annoyed, but a little irritation leaked into her voice.

"Ahaha," the redhead laughed a little as he rubbed the back of his head while looking away. "To tell the truth this was something I had begun to cook up along with several recipes a few weeks before coming to Tōtsuki. It was all in preparation for the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp as well as the Autumn Elections."

"I see," Erina murmured as she looked back down at her dish. "The preparation for this dish was rather long at nearly forty-five minutes."

"I know! And I feel that the impact of the omelette of itself isn't as strong compared to the curry risotto. However, I feel like making the omelette lighter would just detract from the dish rather than add to it." He had been agonizing over that for a while since the Five Countries Omurice seemed so near to completion. In fact, several of his other dishes he was working on were missing a deciding factor. Running into a roadblock like that could destroy a chef if they did not find a way to overcome it.

"I'm sure you'll find a way around this Sōma-kun," she told her boyfriend with a reassuring smile. Erina believed that if he could find a way to create a dish as all-encompassing as this, then he could surely find a way to make it through that final roadblock in his way. He was after all the son of Yukihira Jōchirō formerly Saiba Jōchirō.

The blonde mentally slapped herself when she remembered that when it was just the two of them they were not to use any titles. That included referencing that Sōma was the son of the former Second Seat of the Tōtsuki Elite Ten.

"Oi, no need to make that kind of face." Erina was broken from her thoughts when she heard the redhead's voice from across the table. From the sound of it, he sounded rather reprimanding.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she told him was a scoff and dismissive wave of her hand. The blonde indeed knew what her boyfriend was referring to seeing as she was the person more than likely to break the rule he established about their relationship.

"You're only human Erina," he told her with a waggle of his finger. "It's alright if you make a few mistakes every now and again. I'd actually prefer you make mistakes every now again."

"And why is that?" Though she was asking disinterestedly, there was a bit of bitterness in her voice due to the fact he was outright telling her to stumble.

"Well not make mistakes," he corrected with a thoughtful tap of his head. "I'd rather you just act like you did when we were kids." The redhead tapped his head once more thoughtfully. "What I mean is I'd rather have you act without reservations when it's just the two of us. You don't have to act all stuffy and holier-than-thou when others are around." A smile emerged on his face. "What I'm saying is just act like we're the only two people in the world."

Erina huffed a sigh as she shook her head, a small smile on her face as well. "I sometimes forget how you and your father used to live." She stretched herself on her chair, arms above her head as she exhaled happily. "It feels refreshing to be with you Sōma-kun, just the two of us." Erina once more picked up her fork and dug in again.

"I know what you mean," he agreed with his girlfriend, smile plastered to his face. His fork cut into the Omurice once more and he as well enjoyed his breakfast. A companionable silence thus fell over the couple as they enjoyed the breakfast cooked by the redhead. When they were finished nearly fifteen minutes later, the two were relaxing side by side, both enjoying a glass of strawberry milk.

"So what's the name of the Omurice? Is it something simple like Curry Risotto Omurice?" Erina said with an impish smile on her face as she poked his cheek. She was teasing her boyfriend of course since that was a rather uncreative name for his new dish.

"Nah, the name for the dish is Yukihira Style Five Countries Omurice." He had come up with the name after a recent trial run. It actually fit since the dish was a two country combination dish. His instead used an Italian based dish for the rice and further too a spin on it by making it with curry that he enhanced with Chinese spices. Now if only he could add a third Western Country technique or ingredient to it and he could rename it the World Breakfast since it was balanced between East and West cuisine. Reshaping the omelette into a circle and drizzling the sauce into the kanji for world would just add to its presentation from there. It was not really necessary, but would still be interesting nonetheless.

"Not bad. I can see you taking it a step forward if you solve the omelette problem." He really was a scary chef. Such ingenuity and daredevilry would definitely cause a ripple within Tōtsuki if the other students saw him combining so many ingredients and cooking techniques into one dish. She could count on only one of her hands the number of other students in their class that could probably rival him in their area of expertise.

"You know me, I'm always thinking outside the box," Sōma told her with a cocky grin. "And it's like I said, if everyone else realized their own limitations and worked to break past them, then they would reach new heights."

"It'll be hard for others to take that advice seriously you know, especially since you told them they would be stepping stones for you?" Who was he trying to kid, really? Most people do not like being told it is alright to fail since society always seemed to discard failures. However, if they have someone to rally behind and follow, then the potential they see makes them feel they too can achieve their own. "Your words will be even more difficult to follow once word of your lineage gets out."

"That's exactly why I don't want others to know who my father is." Though it was more than likely many would disregard that as him trying to gain popularity, some would take it one of two wrong ways. They would either relentlessly attack him until he would finally collapse or they would more than likely see that the gap in power was always there. "If everyone brings out their best simply to best me, and not my father, then they'll show their own true potential. By doing that I'll learn from them and they'll learn from me and others."

"I see what you're trying to do," she said as she poked her boyfriend in the cheek. "You're trying to make our year the best Tōtsuki ever produces." Her narrowed eyes did scare Sōma however when he turned toward her.

"W-What?"

"N-Nothing," she muttered while turning away. "Don't worry about it." There was no way she could tell Sōma about the fact that Ikumi seemed to be taken with him, her boyfriend! And that was due to him trying to raise the standard and thereby befriend Mito Ikumi. And if other girls her age knew that Sōma would grow up to be as manly as his father, she knew she would be in the fight for her life to keep her boyfriend to herself.

A poke to her own cheek broke her from her brooding. Turning she saw the perplexed look on her boyfriend's face. "You okay? Something must be bothering you that much if you didn't notice me poking you five times.

"Sōma-kun!" the blonde roared as she leapt at her boyfriend who quickly dashed away. Erina of course gave chase, leading to a fifteen minute chase that ended in the redhead's bedroom with the two of them rolling around on his bed.

* * *

"Miya-chan! C'mon don't be mad at me!" a young man shouted as he ran past the pair as they were making their way to the bullet train station near Tōtsuki. Sōma had planned a trip to Kyoto where they would stay the night at a local _Ryokan_. Erina had been perplexed at her boyfriend's plan, but had gone along since it would be fine for just one day. Besides, no one would be looking for them since it was a small break for first year students before the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp.

The two of them blinked owlishly as their eyes followed the young man who was making a rather large scene in the middle of a train station. A second later he flew back due to a powerful punch from a young woman more than likely 'Miya'.

"I hate you Tsukishiro Kokushi-kun!" the brunette ranted toward the half comatose Kokushi. She then pulled down her bottom left eyelid and stuck out her tongue. Miya then proceeded to huff and turn on her heel and board the bullet train bound for Osaka. The doors to the train shut just a moment before Kokushi impacted against them, trying to make it on with the young woman.

"Miya-chan!" he shouted as fell to his knees, hand reaching out to the train.

"Okay," Sōma muttered. Due to his personality, he would more than likely to check up on a depressed person to see if they were okay. He was stopped from taking a step forward when Erina caught his shoulder and with one look stopped him from even helping the young man.

"He brought this upon himself," she told her boyfriend. "He has to fix the mistakes he's made if he wants her to forgive her."

"Okay?" Whatever that meant, Sōma did not want to know. However, he knew advice when he heard it and this was one of those instances. 'I hope I don't mess up like him.'

'I swear to you Miya-chan, I will find you! I'm not going to give up! I promised the both of us that!' The young man thought to himself as he stood and gathered his determination. He would find his friend and make this right.

'Kokushi-kun…' A tear fell from the young woman's cheek as she turned away from the station. 'I'm sorry, but I have to do this. If I don't you'd just stagnate. You and I both hate that. I hope you'll forgive me.'

* * *

AN: No using a fake online name is not against the rules. I checked. Besides, the story is not centered around me or Miya. Rather, this is my 'meta' punishment for disappointing her. I'll stop hers and mine cameo when I feel I've been fixed my mistakes.

Also, anyone like the stab at Sōma's naming for his entrance dish in the Autumn Elections? Anyway, I'm sorry it took so long. I've been dragging my feet in life for so long. This is a problem I feel I won't be able to fix for a long time. So please be patient with me and forgive me in the future.

Anyway, I hope I won't have to make everyone, you especially Miya, wait so long.


	14. Chapter 15 Abilities and Power

大十五章

能力と力

Chapter 15

Abilities and Power

* * *

"It's so nice to be back," Erina exclaimed as she stretched herself out after getting out of a company car along with her boyfriend. Though it felt nice to go on a little excursion and get away from it all, the blonde had to admit to herself that her real element was here at Tōtsuki. She could even admit a little bit that this place held a special place in her heart, in spite of the fact it was her family's school, and that she would always come back here every now and again after she would inevitably leave.

"I know what you mean," her redheaded friend agreed as he unloaded their luggage from the company car. He however did not notice how his girlfriend's eyes had softened as she regarded him. Despite the place Tōtsuki held in her heart, it could never beat out being right alongside Yukihira Sōma. "The onsen ryokan was great, but their something about this place that makes it feel like home."

"Well it is my family's home," his blonde girlfriend stated proudly as she placed a hand over her chest.

"Tú casa es mí casa," he stated with a grin as he made his way to her side with their luggage trailing behind him.

"You know Spanish?" she asked as she began to walk back to the school grounds. People could say what they wanted to about Yukihira Sōma, but despite his (dubious) humble background and pedestrian appearance, he was a rather intelligent and fit young man. 'Especially fit,' she reminded herself as she licked her lips, a very recent memory of a naked Sōma in an onsen flitting through her mind. 'Definitely fit.'

"Well when you travel the world to learn about cooking, you don't just learn about cooking," Sōma explained as the made their way through the school grounds. It was rather early in the day so they would more than likely not be spotted by anyone. If they were caught, then he could hopefully explain the situation away by babbling on about helping a friend or something of the sort. "You learn about their culture, their history, the mannerisms, and so many other subjects." He then grinned at his girlfriend, "Cooking's isn't just about creating the ultimate dish; it's also about experiencing a whole new culture without actually having been there."

"I'll take your word for it," Erina replied with a smirk as she pushed open the doors to her own private mansion.

"I still can't believe that you have an entire mansion to yourself." Honestly, that was just a little over indulgent regarding Erina. Sure he would probably have helped buy his future children's apartments, but giving them an entire mansion? Now that was just overkill.

"Hisako-chan lives here too you know Sōma-kun," she retorted with a deadpan. Erina then made a motion with her hand to have her boyfriend relinquish her luggage back to her person. "Thank you," she beamed as the young man handed her luggage back with a fuss.

"So?" Sōma began awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. His blonde girlfriend just rolled her eyes as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for a rather daring kiss that had the redhead wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her flush to himself. Once the two broke away, very red blushes on their cheeks, and still in each other's arms, it was Erina to speak first.

"You're the man in this relationship Sōma-kun," she whispered quietly, her forehead pressed up against his own.

"Hehe, sorry 'bout that," he apologized with his trademark goofy grin. "So I'll see you tomorrow at the Resort?"

"Unfortunately we'll more than likely be separated during the first two days of the training camp," she explained with a frown. Erina giggled however when a lost look went across her boyfriend's face. "That doesn't mean we still can't visit each other during the night when no one's awake. I mean, we have been doing that for a while now."

"Do you have any idea how scandalous it would be if either of us were caught going to the other's room that late at night?" Though he could be considered a maverick, or even a daredevil, Sōma was not that reckless with abandon. To see his best friend even suggest something like that had him squirming a little with consternation.

"C'mon big boy, are you afraid of getting caught?" Erina whispered into her boyfriend's ear before nipping his ear lobe. The blonde smiled internally when she felt a shiver run down her friend's spine. "Relax, I was just kidding," she said in a teasing tone as she pulled back, a cheeky smile on her face. Erina had actually wanted to see her boyfriend squirm, seeing as she was usually the person squirming whenever in his presence. It felt good to have some power back in her corner.

"Anyway, see you at camp!" She then quickly pecked her boyfriend on the cheek before darting inside her mansion. When the doors slammed shut behind her, Sōma was snapped from his daze induced reverie. Shaking his head, the redhead looked once at the doors to his girlfriend's mansion before turning around and making his way back to the Polar Star Dorms and then to the new Diner of the Masses RS.

* * *

Up in a tree nearby Erina's mansion, sat one Sadatsuka Nao. Her usual red eyes held a near feral anger as she looked upon the retreating figure of one Yukihira Sōma through her binoculars. "So you're Yukihira Sōma!" she growled quietly as her grip on her beloved binoculars tightened.

"I'll make sure to get rid of you when I can," the Sadako-esque young woman promised a wicked grin on her face.

* * *

"Oi! This place isn't a pig sty is it?" Sōma shouted as he opened the door to the new Diner of the Masses RS building a little bit around noon. He was not disappointed to find that the fifty members of his RS had transformed the rundown building he had seen two days ago into a massive diner with a large open kitchen and generous amounts of seating for customers.

He had suggested to the Elite Ten in allowing his RS to operate like a real diner so that he could display the power of his RS to the school. During his day long excursion with his girlfriend, he had been contacted by Kuzumi that the Elite Ten had accepted his recommendation and allowed the Diner RS to spread it wings. And spread them it did.

Right at this moment there were members of his RS, former Hospitality RS members, serving customers, both fellow students, High School division and Junior High division, and visiting families alike, numbering nearly seventy-five customers. A number of heads, both customer and RS member alike, turned towards the source of the commotion to see who had shouted so boisterously like that. The customers themselves could not believe the comment due to the fact of how well run the restaurant was along with how innovative and delicious the food was. Members of the new Diner RS were enraged when they heard such slander and blasphemy toward their proud new RS that had skyrocketed in the few days it had been established.

"Don't look down on us!"

"This new RS isn't just for show!"

"Wanna saw that to our face!"

"The head of our RS will make you literally eat those words!"

"Geez guys!" the redhead exclaimed as he used both of his hands to make placating motions. "I was just kidding, no need to get that defensive." He grinned when he saw the jaws of all of his RS's members drop like a sack of potatoes.

"Boss!"

"Yukihira-bosu!"

"Yukihira!"

"Sōma-sama!"

That last one was rather new to him to be honest. He was not used to receiving such high praise or even being acknowledged like he was some heaven sent saint. Sure he was able to create delicious dishes based off of common diner dishes using techniques from different cultures, but that should not have been praise worthy enough. Like he was always saying, he had only come this far because he had dared to challenge the mold.

'You're special Sōma. You're not afraid of failure or defeat. You can take everything you've experienced, from the good to the bad, and make it into something new and fantastic. Let yourself be praised for your deeds.' Sōma huffed a little as he remembered a conversation he held with Erina nearly two weeks ago before the school year had officially began. Maybe he should just allow people to praise him without being embarrassed about it. It was not like it would really change him, he would still do what he always did.

Walking to the kitchen, the redhead tugged at the cloth wrapped around his neck like a scarf and removed it before wrapping it around his head. Kuzumi, who was overlooking the frying stations, grinned as he watched his President make his way into their midst.

"Ready to go, Yukihira-bosu?" he asked as tossed the redhead his secondary knife set. Said redhead removed the Nakiri knife in the set and examined the engraving on it.

えりな

"You know it Taiga-senpai!" the young man shouted as he took command of his RS. "Taiga-senpai, what are you guys working on right now!"

"Eight orders of Shrimp Tempura, nine orders of Tonkatsu, five orders of Vegetable Tempura and seven orders of fish tempura! We also have five orders of karaage going up as well!" the former head of the Tempura RS shouted as he assisted the former members of his RS at the frying station. "We'll be ready with three of each order in about four minutes!" Taiga Kuzumi, having specialized in Tempura battering techniques, was nominated to oversee the deep-frying aspect of the Diner RS.

"Alright!" Sōma commented as he looked over at where former president of the Don RS was at. "Konishi-senpai, how many Donburi are we looking at!" he shouted as he began to prep vegetables and meat to be distributed around his kitchen.

"Nikumi and I have four Katsudon being worked on in collaboration, six Gyūdon, five orders of Tendon. We'll have the Gyūdon wrapped up in ten minutes and the Katsudon and Tendon ready to go when Taiga is ready!" the biker like 'Don' of the former Don RS shouted back as he and Ikumi sweated over the hot stoves they were laboring over.

"Oi! I thought I told you not to call me Nikumi!"

"Three Shrimp Tempura, three tonkatsu, three vegetable tempura and three fish tempura are up!" Taiga shouted as he and three other members manning the frying stations pulled up their strainers. "Ready for the topping tables!" the Sōma look-a-like informed as he and the others moved food to dishes to be sent to the topping tables of various sections. "Ready again in seven minutes!"

"Acknowledged!" the numerous members of the kitchen shouted as they went about their tasks with an unerring focus and determination. Since there was no partition separating the kitchen from the seating area, the customers were given an entirely new sight as they watched the cooks scurry about and send out dishes like they were nothing.

Though the building they were in was labeled as the Diner of the Masses RS, and even had the feel and atmosphere of a diner, the food itself was anything but mundane diner food. Each and every time a customer would bite into the food they had ordered, they would not only experience the rich depth of the vegetables, meats and spices, but also the new combinations and adaptations of other cooking styles and recipes.

To say the least, the Diner RS felt more like an Haute Cuisine RS with its grand recipes, bold and rich flavors and appealing design. Yet it felt like a diner in the fact the atmosphere was homely and welcoming, inviting customers in and letting them relax and indulge themselves in the food they had ordered.

"How are the soup stocks coming along?!" Sōma shouted over to Iwatani Naofumi. The former president of the Universal Soup Stock Research Society, or the USSRS, was a second year with a somewhat glum face and shaggy dark hair. "The noodle station is running low!"

"Raphtalia, Firo and I will have the Dashi, Shitake, Beef and Chicken stock ready in about seven minutes! The pork stock is taking a little longer, so ten minutes for that!" Naofumi shouted back. "I'm also running low on kombu for the stocks as well as beef thigh and sinew!"

"Refill at the soup stock station!" the redhead shouted as he tapped a student chopping up ingredients on the shoulder. He had informed everyone that a slight tap on the shoulder meant they were to assist in that person's errand. However, since only the Head Chef, Sous Chef and Division Cooks were the people to more than likely be free, it meant no one could use it to mess around in the kitchen.

"On it Boss!" Okuma Rin shouted as helped Sōma round up materials for the soup stock station. It had only taken the two of them thirty seconds to gather the ingredients and prep them for use. Rin then returned to his task of helping prep and distribute vegetables to the different stations.

"Ramen, udon and soba are up and ready!" Kinichiro shouted as he and four others drained out their noodles and placed them into stock filled bowls. Despite only knowing more about Ramen, he was saddled with operating the noodles of the Diner RS. Not that it really mattered. He needed the practice with other noodles. "Fettucine and Angel Hair will be ready in five minutes! Beginning on a new batch of ramen, udon and soba; t-minus eleven minutes!"

"How are my stews coming along?!" Yukihira Sōma shouted as he looked over the orders on the computers screen. "I have three orders for Curry Katsu, six for beef curry and four for chicken curry! I also have four Boeuf Bourguignon, three Hasenpfeffer, and two Andrajos!"

"Stew takes longer than you think Yukihira-kun!" Sanada Yūki, former President of the Foreign Stew RS, shouted as she assisted four others in the work of six massive pots either boiling or simmering with their contents under a lid or releasing steam for customers to breathe deeply of and drool over. "Twenty or so minutes on the curries! The Bourguignon and Hasenpfeffer are at fifteen minutes! Andrajos incoming in ten minutes now!" She then looked over the six pots simmering on a different stove top and gauged how far they were along. "Next batches of the stews will be up in fifty minutes!"

The loud and boisterous young man who had barged into the building nearly fifteen minutes ago was commanding over forty cooks and crewmembers with a great amount of dexterity and clarity, surprising a great many of the customers with how easily the flow of the kitchen went with him at the head. That was not to say that the flow of the kitchen was chaotic, far from it. The way the cooks and crewmembers moved was deliberate and thought out with not a single movement wasted. But with this incredible young man, Yukihira Sōma, the flow of the kitchen instead turned into that of a grand orchestra being conducted by the likes of Ludwig von Beethoven.

"I have fifteen orders for Miso, ten for Harira, eleven for Wonton, eight for Egg drop, four for Clam Chowder and six for French Onion!" Sōma once more shouted over the din of the kitchen. "How are you guys coming along?!"

The two Tōma Team, Sō Tōma and Kamijō Tōma, along with their respective girlfriends, Mizuhara Kana and Misaka Mikoto, made up the former Appetizing Appetizer Soups RS which now over saw the operations of the soup division in the Diner of the Masses RS. To say that the dynamic of the group was interesting would be an understatement. "Kana, and I will have the Miso, Wonton and Egg drop soups done in eight minutes!" Sō Tōma shouted back as he scooped out the boiling hot wontons while Kana prepared the miso soups.

"Biribiri and I will have the Harira and French Onion done in about seven minutes!" Kamijō Tōma shouted to Sōma cheerfully as he scooped some noodles into the large pot of Harira. "I'll have another pot of Harira ready in one hour! Until then, I have about ten servings left!"

"Thanks!" Sōma shouted as he busied himself with cooking four steaks, a pan full of chunked chicken and three pork tenderloins. He ignored Mikoto's embarrassed shout due to her boyfriend's use of 'that name'.

* * *

"This isn't half bad," a young Middle-Eastern man muttered as he slurped down some Harira. A sigh passed through his lips as his tongue and his senses were assaulted near brutally by the flavor of the spices, vegetables and meats. "This was just like fighting those Flags."

"This Asian food's not as bad as I thought it would be," a brunette Irish man wearing a mink vest muttered as he tasted the chicken curry. "Real spicy too." He rolled his eyes when he watched the Kazakhstan native and his white haired girlfriend make goo-goo eyes at each other as they fed one another using chopsticks.

"Do they even realize they're drawing attention to themselves by doing that?" the man sitting beside the Irish man muttered distastefully. "It's against this country's customs to feed someone else in public. Can't they heed another culture's customs?"

"Ah, let 'em have their fun Tieria." The purple haired man turned around and glared softly at another Irish man, the identical twin of the first. "It's not often we all get to have peaceful excursions like this."

"I suppose."

"Watcha gettin' Cagalli?" a young brown haired man asked his girlfriend as he peered over his menu.

"Get your own food Kira," the blonde muttered as she flicked her boyfriend on the forehead. "It wouldn't be good for us to have traveled around Japan enjoying the food and sights to choose the same thing. Besides, we can just steal from each other's plates anyway."

"I think I'll get the karaage and the Katsudon," Kira said a minute later after having looked through the menu.

"Chicken Teriyaki and Hasenpfeffer," his blonde girlfriend decided a little after him. "Waiter!" she shouted, calling out to one of the numerous Diner RS members. "We're ready to order over here!"

* * *

For nearly seven hours it continued on like that for the Diner RS receiving orders for dishes left, right and center. Having the potential menu widened to nearly one-hundred items had presented a daunting task that many of the Diner RS members had been vehemently against since the beginning. They had stated that starting with such a wide variety of dishes would more than likely overwhelm them with a workload none of them were prepared to handle. Their thoughts had been curtailed when Sōma had denied shrinking the menu down. His answer, which would have incensed them had they not known him personally, had driven them all to work harder than ever with the other members beside them helping out.

"I didn't accept you into my RS with the idea that you were weak chefs. No cooking task, no matter how daunting, should deter any of us from creating a delicious dish. I have faith in all of you that we can pull off something great here if we all work together and pool our strengths."

Those words he had spoken before leaving yesterday on his date, and his display of leadership and abilities had endeared him to all members of his Diner RS. It was from there that every single one of them realized that Sōma's words during the Opening Ceremony were more than just cocky words spoken by a Transfer Student. They were words spoken by a young man who could quite possibly reach the heavens of the cooking world.

"Happy to have served you!" Sōma boasted full of pride as he removed his headband when they had closed up shop for the day. Though the many members of the Diner RS were tired and felt sore in places they never knew they could feel sore in, a sense of satisfaction and triumph washed over all of them as they saw the sales for the day.

A stipulation of allowing Sōma to open his Diner RS to the public was to make his dishes near dirt cheap as to not make people consider Tōtsuki a money grabbing institute. Having a single RS rake in a mountain load of money would just send the wrong image, since Tōtsuki was supposed to be self-sufficient by itself, with the help of the Nakiri clan of course.

Sōma had accepted that anyway, seeing as how the Diner RS could get materials and supplies from the Polar Star Dorms' own sources. It was not like he actually needed the money at all. He would probably had dumped it into funding for the Diner RS anyway. Not like even the RS needed it too.

So when Sōma popped open the safe and cash registers, his eyes and the RS members' eyes nearly bugged out at the massive amount of bills stuffed in. And having Sanada Yūki compute it later in the office with everyone gathered around had everyone's jaws hanging loose at the grand total.

"H-How?" the Two Tōma Team muttered together.

"That's impossible," Taiga and Kinichiro said as they tried to pick up their jaws.

"I thought we worked hard, but this?" Naofumi whispered in disbelief.

"Well… Good work everyone." Everyone turned to Sōma who had this dumbfounded look on his face. When he noticed everyone's eyes on him, he blushed a little and grinned, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Like I told you guys, I knew we would kick butt."

"Sōma-kun, this is nearly five times what we made yesterday," Yūki explained as she pointed at the one followed by six zeroes on the screen. "These numbers aren't a result of our hard work, it's a result of your great leadership."

"Sanada-san's right," Ikumi spoke up from her spot beside Yūki. "The moment you took control over the kitchen, our orders were getting out faster than they usually took and the synchronization between all of us just shot up. I hate to say this, but without you we more than likely wouldn't have reached this much."

"You guys can't always count on me you know, and you also can't always count on those around you." What he just said threw everyone for a loop, contradicting what he had told them a day ago about collaborating together and relying on one another. "Ah, sorry. What I mean is that you can't always expect to stay a chef who'll do the same thing over and over until it's just a dull activity. You can't always expect yourself to stay where you are, looking at the world at large and wondering what's out there.

"It's always terrifying to step out of what is safe and know into the unknown and endless. But at the same time it is something exhilarating and thrilling. It lights a fire in your soul you never knew you had until that moment, or it even reignites that fire you thought extinguished.

"What I'm saying is that we're all member of the Diner of the Masses RS. We're not members of several different RS cobbled together into one. This one joint effort from all of us, where we learn from one another and teach one another. We're here to do that exact thing not only here and Tōtsuki, but when we go out into the world to grow as individual people. Be your own person that others can rely on, a person that is worthy of praise."

A silence had descended over the RS after Sōma had begun to speak, allowing every member to absorb and understand the words their Head Chef was speaking. When he was done, all fifty members of the Diner of the Masses RS had an even greater respect for the First Year Transfer student. That was evident as everyone was cheering him on and shouting his name while calling him with their affectionate titles for the redhead.

* * *

Outside, perched on a tree with binoculars in hand was one Mimasaka Subaru who was watching the Diner of the Masses RS through the window. Or rather, watching Yukihira Sōma more specifically. His 'handler' Eizan Etsuya had sent him out on a reconnaissance mission to spy on the newest, and biggest to date, RS. He had also been told to look into its head, Yukihira Sōma, and see if there were any chances for recruitment.

"Doubt it," the massive student muttered. 'I wonder how long it'd take me to copy him.' A sinister grin crossed his lips as he thought of taking away the new student's prized knife. 'I could use skills like his.'

* * *

"Damn, I can't believe I actually made it through all of that," Sōma muttered as he opened the door to his bedroom. Too tired to even care or even make the effort, the redhead just dropped like a brick on his bed next the lump lying under his blankets. "I thought we wouldn't see each other till tomorrow night?"

"Can't sleep without you near me," she murmured quietly as she pulled the covers out from under her boyfriend and over him. Erina then stripped his shirt while making a face. "You stink badly."

"Worked seven hours straight in my RS," the redhead explained tiredly with a yawn.

"Tell about it in the morning." His yawn was contagious, as the blonde was yawning as well. "Sleep."

"Yes dear."

"Idiot."

"Love you too Erina," he whispered quietly as he kissed her forehead and snuggled closer to her body. She tightened her hold on him as well in return and pressed her head against his chest, letting the beating of his heart lull her to sleep.

* * *

AN: Forgive me everyone! I'm so, so, so sorry! I just got caught up in nearly everything else that I couldn't pump out the next chapter. Not only that, but 14 wanted to be a bitch to me and not come to me at all. So if you're wondering if it's an error that this is 15 and not 14, then there's the explaination. I'll have 14 up when it begins to cooperate with me. Till then, I'll continue on with the story since even I want to see where it goes!

And Miya-chan! I still love you no matter what! Don't ever forget that!

* * *

 **This last bit is for Miya and no one else! Avert your eyes if you're not her! I mean it!**

* * *

"It's nice those two let us have their reservation here, huh, Miya?" Kokushi murmured into his girlfriend's ear as the gazed at the starry night sky up in the mountains of Kyoto. The two were currently soaking in the onsen, with the brunette leaning back against her boyfriend's chest.

"Hmmm," the young woman agreed as she allowed her body to loosen in the magnificent waters of the onsen.

"You know what's even better?" he whispered huskily into her ear.

"Hmmm?"

"This." The young man, a writer still stumbling through life, then initiated a mind blowing a soul searing kiss with his girlfriend that had her toes curling in delight. Just for added bonus, he used tongue too. When they pulled apart, the two of them were flushed deeply, and not because of the heat from the onsen, but rather a different heart.

"Wow," Miya murmured, a silly smile on her face. She then leaned in for another, since she really wanted more.


	15. Chapter 16 A Capricious Day

大十六章

気まぐれ日

Chapter 16

A Capricious Day

* * *

"Now I smell like you," Erina muttered as she rubbed shampoo into her hair. She attempted to glare in her boyfriend's direction, but failed because she had her eyes closed due to not wanting to have suds in them.

"That's what a very hard day's work produces Erina," the redhead chuckled mirthfully as he lounged in the bathtub. He had the misfortune of having a handprint on his face because his hands had wandered just a little too low for his girlfriend's liking on her body. That was not to say she did not enjoy it.

"Seven hours straight of work up the wazoo and about one-hundred orders an hour. And do you know how much we made? Just about one-million yen!" He laughed at his shocked girlfriend who could not quite believe the Diner RS of his could be _that_ successful. The redhead then went into detail the dishes he had organized on his menu and the numerous cooking stations he had organized. His girlfriend had of course interjected here and there with her own advice on how he could improve his operations and serving times, which he had in turn taken in stride.

"You might want to have your RS work on the ventilation of that place as well Sōma-kun," his girlfriend told him as she finished up with her washing. She then made her way over to the tub in a non-seductive way and lowered herself into the object, wedging herself between his legs. "The smell of meat and cooked vegetables was really strong on you. Almost made me hungry and not want to fall asleep again."

"Ho?" Sōma said with a grin as he wrapped his arms around his best friend's shoulders. "Did I smell that good that you were going to feast on me?"

"Oh, I already did that before you woke up," his childhood friend stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Because he was sitting behind her, he did not see the devious smirk that encroached on her lips when he sputtered like a fool.

"W-What?!" the redhead Yukihira coughed, trying not to choke on his own spit. A blush had come over his cheeks, and not because of the heat of the water. He slammed his eyes shut when he felt his little buddy act up, hoping that she would not notice his manhood spasm in delight.

"You perv," he heard his girlfriend murmur quietly. "Looks like you didn't have enough this morning."

"Eh?" Sōma then sucked in a quick breath when he felt her rub her lower cheeks against his length. "E-Erina!"

"Yes Sōma-kun?" she asked innocently as she continued to grind her rear against the length of his manhood. Watching him struggle to maintain his composure was highly amusing. So amusing was it, that when she heard his breath get labored to the point he could no longer hold it in, she pulled away with an impish grin on her face.

"E-Erina?" he murmured, a dazed look on his face while his eyes were glazed over in ecstasy. The redhead could not even comprehend what had happened or even why it happened. All he could comprehend was that he wanted her to do it again. When he saw her leaning back in, this time facing his way so that their eyes could meet, the young man swallowed hard in anticipation. Once she was close enough, he leaned forward to meet her halfway, but was stopped when her hand pushed him back.

"You have no idea how wet I am do you?" she whispered quietly as she leaned her body forward, pressing her breasts against his chest, their nipples rubbing against each other and causing a pleasure friction to come forth. Sōma groaned, doing his best to keep himself composed and failing spectacularly. "Seeing you like this gets me so excited you know?" The tease of a blonde then connected her lips to her boyfriend's and initiated their steamiest to date kiss.

"I wonder if I make a face like this," his girlfriend wondered aloud as she pulled back and examined his more than likely pleasured face. She felt an excited chill run down her spine when she imagined what it would be like to just tease him mercilessly before finally allowing him to release all of his pent of pleasure into her with one blow.

"Erina," Sōma paused to swallow a deep breath and rally his composure before continuing, "You need to stop, or else I won't be able to control myself." He growled deeply in the back of his throat when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders while rubbing her body against his own, which made their nipples rub against each other again and their cores hear up even more.

"What if I don't want you to control yourself?" she whispered seductively into his ear before an erotic moan passed between her lips. Her shoulders were then suddenly grabbed as Sōma held her at arm's length, thus stopping the skin on skin contact. The way his eyes just seemed to burn with such an untamed fire had her licking her lips in delight.

"You had better not complain when I leave you a whimpering, pleasure mess then." From the conviction in his voice and the way he seemed ready to attack her like she was a lamb, Erina could tell her boyfriend was just at the brink.

"As much as I would love to let you ravish me," she began with a regretful tone, "the training camp starts today. Despite how great it would have been, I think we'd both need our energy for that, rather than this." The blonde then rose from the tub, taking delight in how her boyfriend's lust filled gaze seemed to follow her every movement. Once she had gathered her bath supplies and wrapped her towel around her body, she made her way to the door. She paused however and looked over her shoulder, smiling teasingly as she locked eyes with her savage looking boyfriend.

"Oh, and Sōma-kun?" He made no noise, but narrowed his eyes, more than likely realizing what she was going to say. "About what I said about feasting on you before you woke up? I lied." She then quickly closed the door behind her and chuckled behind her hand, imagining the look of utter outrage on her best friend's face.

"I'm going to get her back for that," Sōma muttered as he lowered his body into the tub, with only his eyes and nose above the water line. Revenge aside, he had to first deal with his 'not so' little problem. Sighing quietly, he looked to the door and saw her silhouette move away from the translucent glass sliding door. "That woman is going to be the death of me."

* * *

"Oh, hello Nakiri-san," Megumi greeted her fellow Ninety-Second Generation Tōtsuki classmate when she had walked into the dining room. Though she was surprised to see the blonde here at this time of the day, the young woman was not surprised to see Erina here since her boyfriend did live here of course. "So how'd your little trip go?" she inquired, politely of course, as she sat across from the other girl.

"Oh! Ummm." It was no secret, to the Polar Star residents anyway, that the two of them had gone on a trip since they had been caught red-handed going out the door by everyone. "It, it was… nice," she finished lamely with an embarrassed blush on her face. There was no way she was going to admit to Megumi, or even to Hisako for that matter, that she had spent a nice dip into a private onsen with her boyfriend and commenced in heavy petting. Definitely no way she was going to, even if under the pain of death. The embarrassment would just kill her.

"We, uh, we went on a sightseeing tour in Kyoto for a day and a half. We went to Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto and took a lot of pictures there. Wanna see?" she asked as she pulled out a handheld digital camera from her clutch. When Megumi nodded, Erina smiled in response and made her way so that she was sitting beside the girl. She then turned it on and began flipping through all of the pictures, giving a little explanation to each of the photos.

"This is us at the Kiyomizu Temple," the blonde explained as the came across a panoramic photo of a large stage, clear blue skies and Erina and Sōma in the center with matching goofy smiles on their faces and peace signs. The next picture was Erina trying to hoist the young man back up from over the ledge of the stage. "And this is me trying to stop him from being an idiot," the Nakiri admitted with a sigh. The next picture had them sitting in seiza style being scolded by one of the temple's priest, given the man's attire. "And this is us getting scolded for pulling that stunt."

"Sōma-kun's a very capricious person isn't he Nakiri-san." She giggled a little when she saw the blonde sigh dramatically. "It must be tough at times to deal with him all the time."

"That he is," Erina admitted with a sigh. "And you can call me Erina since your Sōma's friend and by extension my friend as well." She smiled a little when Megumi blushed and stammered out an excuse about acting familiarly with her, which she waved off.

"Sōma-kun, and by extension his father, is a man child. He's like an eight-year-old on a sugar rush. He seems so excited with every new day, that it'd kind of wear on you if you weren't used to his antics. When he's around me, it's like he can't help but push all my buttons, not that I really mind," she admitted with a smile that was shared with the blunette. "However, when he's not in my sight, I'm not sure if he isn't acting like a noble idiot or torturing someone with his crazy concoctions." She paused when she saw the blunette shiver in fright when she mention Sōma's cooking experiments. "Don't tell me…"

"It's not that it was horrible," Megumi began, trying to placate the Nakiri. "It just, uh, it just surprised me is all?" she finished lamely. From the way Erina's eyebrow was twitching and the forced grin on her face, she had more than likely doomed Sōma to a sound tongue lashing from his girlfriend.

"You can flip through the photos if you like," the blonde said as she stood. "Please return it to me later on today when you have the chance." She then turned on her heel and made her way into the kitchen, her footsteps echoing in the dining room. "If you'll excuse me, I need to remind my boyfriend that he should not be using others to taste test his hazard food."

'Sorry Sōma-kun. I'll pray for your soul when it reaches Nirvana.' However, a little devious part of her mind cackled in delight. 'That's what you get for making me eat that crap! Get him Erina-san! Get him good!'

* * *

"Hey Erina, what's up?" the redhead asked when he heard his girlfriend make her way over to where he was preparing the ingredients for the breakfast he was going to cook for his fellow dorm mates and girlfriend. His eyes widened when he saw the glare on her face, and before he could react, found his ear being twisted painfully. "Youch!"

"Yukihira Sōma," she began in a very low and calm tone, "What did I tell you about making others eat your dangerous experiments?"

"It hurts! It hurts!" Sōma whimpered dramatically. When he looked up, he saw his girlfriend giving him a deadpan look. Guess he needed to work on his acting. "T-To not do so?"

"And what did I say would be your punishment if you didn't follow that one rule?" When he was released, a sullen look passed over Sōma's face before he unwrapped his cloth and handed it over to his girlfriend. He was then lead out of the kitchen by the blonde who then sat him down at a table far away from the other Polar Star residents who had just joined Megumi in the dining room.

Said Polar Star residents gave each other odd looks before watching Erina make her way over to where Megumi sat and grab her clutch. When she made her way back to the sulking Sōma, she then pulled an object out of clutch that had just about everyone cackling in amusement.

"This is so humiliating," Sōma stated as he let Erina tie the enlarged baby-bib around his neck. He glared in the direction of his laughing dorm mates. Once he saw his girlfriend make her way back into the kitchen, he then flipped them the bird which made them chortle even more uproariously. He let his face meet the table as he listened to the teasing comments and never ending innuendos about roleplaying and other such stuff.

The humiliation didn't end there because when Erina came out with everyone's breakfast, Oyakodon, miso soup, cold tofu and natto he did not receive a plate. Rather, he got a plain Omurice topped with ketchup instead.

"Do you need help Sōma-chan?" Erina asked her boyfriend when she sat down beside him once she had given everyone their breakfast. She ignored the snickering from behind her and settled for smiling sweetly at the redhead.

"No ma'am," Sōma stated loudly enough that she could hear him. He remembered the last time he had not spoken loud enough. Though being fed by his girlfriend was a treat, having himself treated like a child was not something he would like to go through again.

"Please eat then."

"Itadakimasu!" everyone in the dining room cheered as they dug in. The redhead's voice was more subdued as he dug into the plain looking Omurice. Just before he took his first bite, he heard the moans coming from the others and could only imagine how great his girlfriend's breakfast tasted. Sighing sadly, he bit into his first forkful and almost cried in happiness. Swallowing the first bite, he turned his attention to his best friend who was calmly eating her food.

When she turned her attention to her boyfriend, Erina saw that he had this happy and thankful look on his face. Though she was punishing him for making his taste his catastrophe of a recipe experiment, there was no way she would go so far as to not make him a delicious and love filled breakfast. "Love you," she whispered as she diverted her gaze away from her boyfriend.

Had she not diverted her gaze, the blonde more than likely would have had a goofy smile on her face since there was one on her boyfriend's face. Sōma thanked all the heavens for meeting such a young woman before devouring his breakfast with gusto, tears streaming down his eyes.

"Idiot," she murmured to herself as she felt happiness swell in her chest due to the love she felt from Sōma.

* * *

"I still can't get used to the fact your family owns all of this," Sōma admitted to his girlfriend as they were making their way to Tōtsuki Resort from where the buses were parked. They made a point to ignore the gossiping students who were looking onto the pair with curious eyes. "I mean, this place is massive!"

"You forget my family has held a lot of power in Japan and not just in the food industry," she admitted as she looked at the thirty story tall main building. "When World War II ended, my family helped in the restoration effort by maintaining the rationing every city received. It was with their help that kept our country from the brink of starvation. Had it not been for our neutral stance in the war, the out of country supply lines our family had would have dried up and thus have caused our country to collapse due to a severe food shortage. This was just a payment from the Emperor our services in saving the country."

"Wow, your family's really awesome, eh Erina?" the redhead teased as he nudged her with his elbow playfully. The people around them looked on with fright at how familiarly the transfer student was acting with Nakiri Erina, worried that a bloodbath was about to occur. Their jaws slacked when they saw Erina swat him almost playfully no less, and scold him lightly!

Honestly, who was this guy?!

Not many of the students let their minds be distracted by their thoughts concerning one Yukihira Sōma seeing as there was something more daunting lying in wait before them. As all of the students made their way into the main building of the Tōtsuki Resort, they were directed further into the building until they reached a large set of double doors. When the two employees near the doors saw students making their way to the banquet hall, they opened the double doors, allowing the students to enter.

Many of the students marveled at the size of the banquet hall, once more reminded of the fact that Tōtsuki was a very rich, very prestigious cooking school. Some even realized that despite nearly one-thousand students were making their way into the banquet hall, there was still room to fit a few hundred more people! A few of the very intelligent people, such as Marui Zenji, calculated that the Great Banquet Hall could hold nearly two-thousand occupants and have enough room for a formal dance floor.

When Erina and Hisako along with the entirety of the Polar Star residents made it into the Great Banquet Hall, they were greeted by a rather tense atmosphere due to the anxious students meandering around. Hisako shared a look with her blonde friend, which was mirrored toward Sōma from his girlfriend.

"And people say they were going to crush me," Sōma stated loud enough from the entrance to draw absolutely everyone's attention. "I mean, honestly, everyone knew this was coming. So why it is that everyone's sulking about?"

"Maybe they just finally realize that this is the limit of their abilities and have chosen to give up without a fight?" Erina stated haughtily as she flipped her hair. "I can see quite a few of the students here that won't make it through this." Wherever her eyes landed, the students who fell into her field of vision would either flinch away in fright or slump over in defeat.

"Now hold on Erina," Sōma interrupted as he jumped in front of her, shielding everyone away from her cold eyes. "I'm quite sure if I can make it through this training camp, then everyone else can make it through here as well."

A good number of the students looked at the back of Yukihira Sōma with slackened jaws due to his bold statement. Not only did it Sōma stand up to everyone against the tongue lashing of one Nakiri Erina, but it seemed to be that he was also subtly encouraging everyone with his last statement. It seemed to do the trick, as a number of people seemed to become fired up, wanting a chance to show Yukihira Sōma that they were as good, if not better than, him. The tense atmosphere that had once settled on the Great Banquet Hall seemed to lift as a lively energy surged through the student body there.

"Are you sure that was wise?" a voice from behind the redhead asked. Sōma turned around and smiled at the tanned young woman standing before.

"Hey Nikumi!"

"It's not Nikumi Yukihira!" the Meat Master raged as she glared at the redhead. "Get my name right! It's Ikumi! I-ku-mi!" He of course ignored her raging since that was how he acted on a daily basis. Not that she really minded since Sōma had told her the name was cute.

"Anyway, are you sure it was quite alright to give such a motivational speech to your potential rivals."

"It's more interesting if everyone is fighting and giving it their all then you know?" the redhead stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, healthy competition is what fuels a fiery passion within their chest," he told her with a cheesy grin. "And if they can beat me, so what? I can just come back and beat them again."

"You really are reckless, you know that?" Ikumi asked with an exasperated sigh, yet contrasted with the small smile on her face. Sōma just laughed in return, admitting the fact he was one maverick of a young man.

He had then decided to wander around the banquet hall, scoping out everyone as well as greeting anyone from his Diner RS. When he passed by students loitering around in the center of the banquet hall, he felt something fruity smelling tickling his nose. The redhead stopped then and took an experimental sniff of the air and realized that there was a scent of citrus hanging around in the air. As he did that, his action seemed to have attracted the attention of a particular young man.

"You smell it too, Yukihira Sōma?" Turning around to where the voice came from Sōma was met with a tall, dark skinned young man with striking green eyes and rather long white hair with the bangs swept to the right.

"If you mean the citrus, then yeah I do… ummm?" He actually did not know that many people in Tōtsuki beside Erina, Hisako and his fellow Polar Star dorm mates.

"Akira," the young man introduced himself as he stretched his hand forward. "Hayama Akira."

"Well met Akira," Sōma said with a grin as he shook his fellow student's hand. "Do you smell any other students wearing fruit-scented care products?" he asked as he looked around the Great Banquet Hall. "I spot five people." The redhead then discreetly pointed out five of the students in the sea of nearly one-thousand.

"You missed three," Akira stated as he too discreetly pointed toward three other students who were wearing fruit-scented care products.

"Eh?" Sōma asked dumbfounded as his eyes found the three students the dark skinned youth pointed out. "I didn't even smell them."

"It's no wonder you can't," the dark skinned youth stated. "The scent is barely there." The redhead froze for a second to regard his fellow student.

"That's a nice nose you have there," he complimented the young man. "I bet you can make dishes with your eyes closed." When all Akira did was smile benevolently at him, Sōma grinned like a madman. "I'm to assume you're one of the people who can really make me eat my own words."

"Visit the Shiomi Seminar sometime if you'd like to see," he stated with a disarming smile. They were soon interrupted when a tapping sound from every speaker in the banquet hall was heard. Everyone's eyes then diverted to the stage when they heard someone state, "Please line up into twenty-five rows please and face the stage." Akira and Sōma looked at each other and shrugged, forming their own row. They raised their eyebrows when they were joined by three of the students wearing the wrong care products. The two First Years shared a look before looking to the stage.

Standing up on stage behind a podium was the head of the French Cuisine Department of Tōtsuki, Rolland Chappelle, who was speaking into the microphone attached to the podium. "I will be going over the outline for this year's training camp," he began as he looked at itinerary in front of him.

"Tōtsuki's Friendship and Rapport Training Camp will be a five nights and six days long event. Every day you will be given an assignment related to cooking by a lecturer. These tasks and lecturers vary year to year as to avoid cheating. Also, if the evaluation of a student is unsatisfactory, then they are thereby expelled. That student will then be escorted off the premises back to the school grounds where they will be expelled." A number of students swallowed at that, realizing that expulsion due to failure to meet the instructor's expectations was a very real thing.

"For the lecturers, as we have done every year, we have called in guest lecturers. Despite many of them running their own restaurants and having busy schedules, many of them have gathered here for your first rite of passage, to gauge your abilities just as they were once gauged. May I present to you, the Alumni of the Tōtsuki Tea Ceremony and Cooking Academy." As if on cue, nearly forty men and women made their way from the curtain on the side stage to the center of the main stage.

When all of the stood near the edge of the stage, one man stood out from them due to his striking pink hair. From his countenance, it seemed to Sōma that the glass wearing man was completely disinterested in being here for the Training Camp. The man's stance changed when he noticed something no one else seemed to notice.

"You there, the person in Row Nine, standing beside Yukihira Sōma," the pink haired man stated, cementing the fact that Yukihira Sōma had personally known, and more than likely worked under, Shinomiya Kojirō. When Akira pointed at himself with a bored expression, he shook his head. "The other person beside Yukihira Sōma." The plain looking student standing beside Sōma pointed at himself. "Yeah, you're expelled."

The sudden expulsion of one of their own number right then and there, just when the Training Camp was beginning no less, had nearly everyone frozen in shock. That shock increased when he pointed to four other students, two in same row as the first, and told them that they too were fired.

'They probably wore fruity shampoo,' Ryō thought with a snarky tone. 'I'd kick the any cook who wears that to curb faster than they could blink. They'd give my restaurant a bad name if they did that. Also, what professional chef even wears fruit scented anything?'

"What? Why?!" the brunette shouted as the pink haired man walked off the stage toward him. "Why am I expelled?"

"It's because you're wearing a very strong smelling citrus shampoo," Sōma stated to his right. The brunette glared at the redhead. "Isn't that right Shinomiya-senpai?"

"Right you are Monsieur Yukihira," Shinomiya Kojirō stated as he lifted his pointer finger and waggled it at the rule offender. "As he said, you're wearing a strong smelling orange shampoo. Because of that, it could potentially overpower your sense of smell, affecting your taste testing. And if you were to be a waiter at my restaurant, you would more than likely ruin a customer's meal since you'd be contaminating the dining area."

'Pathetic,' Erina thought as she watched those three of the five students fall to their knees in despair. 'Three years of schooling gone to waste simply because they decided to wear a fruit scented care product. One would think they would have realized a strong fruit scented product would throw off a chef's senses and thus throw off their cooking. Oh well, less incompetent people like them then.'

'Oh thank god I decided to wear a very light-lavender scented shampoo today,' Hisako thought glumly. 'Had I gone with that cherry scented one, I would joining them.' She then resolved from that point on to go with scentless care products during any school day or cooking related day. On her off days… well she could afford to be girly then.

"There are three more people wearing a fruit based shampoo, Chef Shinomiya," Akira spoke up from his spot beside Sōma.

"Ho?" Kojirō said in awe as he looked over the dark skinned man standing beside that redheaded maverick. "If I can't smell them, then that means hardly anyone else could possibly. However, I'd like you to point them out for so they can be scolded." Akira then pointed to the three students, one ten rows back and three to the right, another even further back, in the last row and five to the left. He then pointed to one of the students that Kojirō had passed on his way to row nine. "You're a very interesting student," Kojirō stated as he meandered about to scold those students.

That seemed to cause a number of the other Alumni to wander amongst the students, examining them closely. One person Sōma noticed to be the center of attention was his timid friend, Tadokoro Megumi. Though it was amusing to watch, his attention however was diverted from there when he turned back to the stage and saw the man standing there front and center. He wore a brown suit with a white undershirt and brown slacks, while wrapped around his neck was a leopard patterned tie.

"Dōjima Gin," Sōma whispered quietly to himself as he gazed upon the man who stood even higher than his father. That man was the only person in the history of Tōtsuki's Alumni to graduate with the highest test scores. Not only that, but he also had over eight-hundred job offers that he had turned down so that he could work here at the Tōtsuki Resort specifically. He was the only man to stand above his father, the man he was desperately trying to beat. And in spite of beating him on occasion, Sōma knew that he would need to soundly defeat the older Yukihira, rather than by a hair, if he wanted to even reach the place his father had never touched. 'Just you wait, I will be more victorious than anyone else to have passed through these halls.'

'So, Jōichirō's son is here,' Gin thought as his gaze landed on the young redhead in the sea of students. Though known only to a few since his father had suppressed the use of his son's name, Yukihira Sōma had made something of a name for himself around the world with his father during their two year-long trip around the world. In fifteen countries around the globe, there were rumors of a father and son chef-duo that had revolutionized the cooking world. One of them was of course the fabled Asura, Yukihira Jōichirō. It was not until France, when serving under Shinomiya Kojirō, that Yukihira Sōma had earned his nickname.

'L'Arlequin Capricieuse, or The Capricious Harlequin, was what he was dubbed by the French critics. Despite his rather childish appearance and personality, he had a very serious side when cooking, especially when he was fighting to defend a restaurant's honor.' He chuckled a little as he wondered if the young man would bring that capriciousness to the table as he had done in France. 'I wonder if the Harlequin is going to make a mess of this Training Camp like his father.' With that final thought, he brought the mic up to lips and spoke into it, greeting the massive crowd of students.

"I'd like to welcome all of you kōhai to Tōtsuki Resort," he started with a grin. "As Chapelle-sensei stated, all of the Alumni have cleared their busy schedules to evaluate all of you for your first rite of passage in the High School Division of Tōtsuki. However, as such, they will be evaluating you as if you were their own employees. Do you get it?" the former First Seat asked as he held his thumb against his throat and slashed to the other side. "It means that they'll be firing you as if were working in their own restaurants. And as you all just saw, you can be expelled at nearly any moment by a lecturer's discretion, within grounds of course.

"A final word before you all leave; I wish all of you my fellow Tōtsuki kōhai, the best of luck!" A number of students felt relieved to hear at least some encouragement from the alumni, especially from Dōjima Gin no less. "You're now dismissed!"

A flurry of activity erupted as students went about saying their goodbyes to their friends, some afraid they would not see them anymore, slumped over in defeat or made their way out to the buses they were assigned to that would take them to where their first day's assignment would occur.

Ryōko and Yūki were in one group, both girls grateful and happy to be together for the first hurdle of the hellish Training Camp. Zenji, Shōji and Daigo were in another and of course the two meatheads were fighting one another while the glass wearing student was frozen in fright. Shun nodded in Hisako and Ikumi's direction when he saw that the two of them were in his group, and though they only knew him by in passing, they were still relieved to at least know someone in their group.

"Good luck Erina!" Hisako shouted as she waved her blonde friend goodbye. Erina just gave a small wave and smiled a little as she made her way to her bus. A small part of her was depressed since she could not see her boyfriend off, at least not in public with everyone watching.

* * *

"Same group, eh Tadokoro?" the redhead admitted with a grin as he too made his way to the bus, his blunette friend by his side. "Let's both kick some butt during this Training Camp."

"Y-Yeah," the timid girl agreed as she climbed onto the bus and found an open spot. The spot beside her soon was occupied by her redhead friend, which had her blushing up a storm in embarrassment and excitement since he was probably her best male friend. She would forever be indebted to this maverick of a man who had helped her on his first day here and had constantly believed in her from that day on. However excited she was, the blunette then fell asleep on the bus, as she had only three hours of sleep total due to nerves keeping her up.

Her friend who had been rambling on without stopping soon realized she was not listening the moment he heard a small snore escape her lips. The redhead smiled a little and ruffled her hair, telling her in his mind that everything was going to be okay. He then felt his phone vibrate and upon opening it, saw that his girlfriend had sent him a text. Sōma smiled as he read it and typed out his own before sending it to her.

 _Subject: Come back safely_

 _RE: I know you'll come back safely. I know you will. But I'll wish you luck anyway. So don't you dare get yourself kicked out, you hear me?_

 _Love you (-|||-)_

* * *

After having sent her text and waiting for a reply, Erina had looked out the window of the bus she was on with disinterest. The only person she knew out of the fifty in her group was the young man who had spoken up during the fiasco just a few minutes ago. Not that it really mattered to her. She was not much a real talker to begin with anyway. A sigh passed through her lips as the blonde realized she was even more sheltered than she had originally believed, as socializing with other teenagers, especially other girls, was something she had no idea how to do.

When she felt her phone vibrate, Erina felt giddy about the text she was about to read. She was reminded of the fact there was one brilliant young man who could bring that world to her without her getting too overwhelmed. Reading the text filled her with a happy warmth that had her blushing like a loves truck teen, which she was of course.

 _Subject: Don't worry_

 _RE: I'm the man who can make the impossible possible you know? Kidding, kidding. I'd make a cool Mu La Flaga anyway right?_

 _I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to be right beside you all the way when we graduate you know? So don't worry. I'm not going to let this stop me. And best of luck to you as well. So, see you later tonight then, ne?_

 _Love you too! (^3^)_

Despite the fact she would have more than likely passed the day's assignment, Erina felt happy to know that her boyfriend was still in her corner, cheering her own. Sending a quick text back, the blonde composed herself before stowing her cellphone in her clutch. She then rose along with the other students and exited the bus before passing through the doors of the building where she would be taking her first test.

* * *

AN: A week after my last update. Dear God. Anyway, as before this is chapter 16 as 15 is in the 14th spot. Yes I will get 14 up, stop nagging me already. So everything is heating up now. The first real hurdle of the year is to come. We all saw how the manga and anime went, let's see how the fanfiction goes, shall we?

As always, leave a review if you liked it.

* * *

"You know, my family still hasn't met you yet? I'm thinking about introducing you to them on my mom's birthday as my bride-to-be." Miya stopped reading the story her boyfriend was typing to stare at the man in a surprised manner.

"Eh?" Miya's eyes then followed him as he made his way to his suitcase and pulled something out of it. When he made his way back to her, instead of sitting beside her, he kneeled on one knee and opened the small velvet box in his hands, revealing a simple golden band.

"We've been going out for five years. I hope you'll spend that and more by my side as my wife. Will you do me the honors?"

"Eh?" Was this really happening? Was he really popping the question? Was he going to be her husband? Why was she not saying yes?!

"I'll take that as a yes." Kokushi chuckled before slipped it onto his, now, fiancé's left ring finger while the brunette seemed to be blushing up a storm.

"Eh?" This was really happening! This was really happening! This was really happening!

"Love you too." When he kissed her lightly on the lips, he did not expect his lover to fall backwards. He reacted fast enough of course, and sighed exasperatedly when he saw the goofy smile on the woman's face. The man then rolled his eyes before carrying her to their futon and tucking her in. "Sweet dreams."


End file.
